An inexpensive particle monitor for smoker behaviour modification in homes

Peer reviewedPostprin

The UCB particle monitor: A tool for logging frequency of smoking and the intensity of second-hand smoke concentrations in the home

Second-hand tobacco smoke (SHS) exposure generates a large public health burden. Recent legislation has moved to prohibit smoking in public places and there are concerns that this may lead to an increase in exposures in private homes. Measurement of SHS aerosol has tended to use active pumped samples or longer-term diffusive badges. Pumped methods are noisy and poorly tolerated in home settings while diffusive badges do not provide real-time data. The UCB particle monitor (UCB-PM) is a modified smoke-alarm device capable of logging changes in airborne particulate matter over extended periods and has been used successfully to measure biomass fuel smoke concentrations in developing world settings This study has examined the use of the UCB-PM to measure SHS aerosol in both controlled laboratory conditions and a pilot field trial over a 7 day period in a smoker's home. Comparisons with a pumped sampler (TSI Sidepak Personal Aerosol Monitor) indicate good agreement over a range of exposure concentrations but there is evidence of a threshold effect at approximately 0.5 mg/m3 of fine particulate measured as PM2.5. While this threshold effect undermines the ability of the device to provide useful data on the time-weighted average SHS concentration, the field trial indicates that that the UCB-PM has a sensitivity of about 71% and a specificity of 98%. The device has many advantages including zero noise operation, low cost and long battery life and may be a useful tool in quitting and smoke-free home intervention studies

Using a new, low-cost air quality sensor to quantify second-hand smoke (SHS) levels in homes

Peer reviewedPreprintPreprintPreprintPostprin

Urban air quality citizen science. Phase 1: review of methods and projects

This report will comprise suggestions of links with other work and possible approaches for taking the work forward, providing a map of current and recent air quality related Citizen Science activities in the UK, Europe and beyond. In this deliverable, we map out the technologies and approaches currently available for air quality monitoring and provide an overview on how they could be applied in a citizen science context. In addition, we provide an overview of existing citizen science activities with relevance to air pollution. The focus of this report will be on the specific aspects of air pollution monitoring in a citizen science context; we refer to Roy et al. (2012) for a more general discourse on citizen science projects. As far as possible, we will closely link to another SEPA funded project with a focus on citizen science for environmental monitoring (by direct personal contact with colleagues at CEH), as well as other ongoing and emerging projects (e.g. EU FP7 project CitiSense, Transport Scotland, etc.). The objective of this report is not to draw final conclusions, but to provide the material and information resources for the following phases 2 and 3 of the pilot project

A novel hypervariable variable number tandem repeat in the dopamine transporter gene (SLC6A3)

The dopamine transporter gene, SLC6A3, has received substantial attention in genetic association studies of various phenotypes. Although some variable number tandem repeats (VNTRs) present in SLC6A3 have been tested in genetic association studies, results have not been consistent. VNTRs in SLC6A3 that have not been examined genetically were characterized. The Tandem Repeat Annotation Library was used to characterize the VNTRs of 64 unrelated long-read haplotype-phased SLC6A3 sequences. Sequence similarity of each repeat unit of the five VNTRs is reported, along with the correlations of SNP-SNP, SNP-VNTR, and VNTR-VNTR alleles across the gene. One of these VNTRs is a novel hyper-VNTR (hyVNTR) in intron 8 of SLC6A3, which contains a range of 3.4-133.4 repeat copies and has a consensus sequence length of 38 bp, with 82% G+C content. The 38-base repeat was predicted to form G-quadruplexes in silico and was confirmed by circular dichroism spectroscopy. In addition, this hyVNTR contains multiple putative binding sites for PRDM9, which, in combination with low levels of linkage disequilibrium around the hyVNTR, suggests it might be a recombination hotspot

Validation of a shear stress and pressure transducer for use in prosthetic socket/tissue interaction studies

No abstract availableNo abstract availabl

Computationally efficient brushless permanent magnet motor modelling

Physically derived mathematical models of motors are frequently used to simulate system performance. These can be constructed at various levels of fidelity depending on the application requirements. To accurately capture the dynamics of brushless permanent magnet motors, the effects of electrical commutation should be included. Short time-step simulations are required to include electrical effects explicitly. If the experimental time durations are large, for example during thermal analysis, this type of model can take unacceptably long to run. This work develops a new motor model that includes commutation effects implicitly, and is therefore capable of operating using increased time-steps, significantly reducing simulation time. The effects of winding resistance and inductance within the model ensure that it produces similar results to a fully commutated 3-phase model. The new model is demonstrated through comparison against other models and real motor test results. This validation process is performed in the frequency domain

Commentary: Switching to biogas – what effect could it have on indoor air quality and human health?

Acknowledgements We are very grateful to the UK Department for International Development (DFID) New and Emerging Technologies Research Call for funding this work.Peer reviewedPostprin

Domestic airborne fine particulate matter exposure and asthma control among children receiving inhaled steroid treatment

The aims of the present study were to measure domestic PM2.5 exposure and explore relationships with indices of asthma severity and control in children prescribed inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs). Disease severity was determined by questionnaire and spirometry. Asthma control was assessed by 5-day peak flow variability (PFV) and children's asthma control test (CACT) on the 1st and 5th day of peak flow testing. Concentrations of PM2.5 were measured over a 24-h period. Twenty-two children were recruited, mean age 11.0 years. Across the 22 homes the median time weighted average (TWA) PM2.5 concentration (range) was 7.4 μg/m3 (2.0-150.0) and was significantly higher in the seven homes where smoking was reported (24.0 μg/m3) than non-smoking homes (6.0 μg/m3), p=0.001. There was a positive association between TWA PM2.5 and PFV (rho = 0.55, p = 0.015, n = 19) and a negative association between TWA PM2.5 and CACT (rho = - 0.56, p = 0.010, n = 20). TWA PM2.5 exposure was not related to indices of asthma severity. Peak PM2.5 concentration was not associated with any outcome. This exploratory study suggests that even at relatively low concentrations, there is an exposure-response relationship between increasing indoor air PM2.5 concentrations and poorer asthma control in children prescribed ICSs