Author Correction: Long-term field comparison of multiple low-cost particulate matter sensors in an outdoor urban environment

Correction to: Scientific Reports https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-43716-3, published online 16 May 2019. This Article contains a typographical error in the Acknowledgements section. “Natural Environmental Research Council grant number [NE/L002531/1]” should read: “Natural Environment Research Council: NE/N012070/1”

Testing Smart City environmental monitoring technology using small scale temporary cities

Exposure to Particulate Matter (PM) has been identified as a major health problem worldwide. Established measurement techniques require equipment costing many thousands of dollars and specialist expertise to maintain. Ongoing research is investigating the use of low cost <;$300 sensors to enable greater temporal-spatial density of readings to be taken. There are questions about the suitability and reliability of these low-cost sensors, which can be addressed by deploying and evaluating the sensors in real world applications. Rather than deploying standalone data loggers for each sensor, each air quality monitor is connected to an IoT device to enable real time transmission of data. We propose festival sites as small scale cities to enable a short term deployments and evaluation of sensors. This work illustrates that, if coupled with higher resolution of wind data, low-cost sensors may enable to follow the evolution of pollution hotspots and help the identification of pollution sources. This study, building upon the body of work focused on the evaluation and best practice of using low-cost sensors for PM monitoring. We present data from these IoT devices and experiences gained from using a festival site as a substitute for a city

Discovery of a series of 2-(pyridinyl) pyrimidines as potent antagonists of GPR40

A series of 2-(pyridinyl)pyrimidines were identified as potent GPR40 antagonists. Despite significant challenges related to improving the combination of potency and lipophilicity within the series, the compounds were optimised to identify a suitable in vivo probe compound, which was confirmed to exhibit pharmacology consistent with GPR40 antagonism

The flow pattern in the exit pipe of a cyclone

Applied Science

The effects on bronchial epithelial mucociliary cultures of coarse, fine, and ultrafine particulate matter from an underground railway station

We have previously shown that underground railway particulate matter (PM) is rich in iron and other transition metals across coarse (PM10–2.5), fine (PM2.5), and quasi-ultrafine (PM0.18) fractions and is able to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS). However, there is little knowledge of whether the metal-rich nature of such particles exerts toxic effects in mucus-covered airway epithelial cell cultures or whether there is an increased risk posed by the ultrafine fraction. Monolayer and mucociliary air-liquid interface (ALI) cultures of primary bronchial epithelial cells (PBECs) were exposed to size-fractionated underground railway PM (1.1–11.1 µg/cm2) and release of lactate dehydrogenase and IL-8 was assayed. ROS generation was measured, and the mechanism of generation studied using desferrioxamine (DFX) and N-acetylcysteine (NAC). Expression of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) was determined by RT-qPCR. Particle uptake was studied by transmission electron microscopy. Underground PM increased IL-8 release from PBECs, but this was diminished in mucus-secreting ALI cultures. Fine and ultrafine PM generated a greater level of ROS than coarse PM. ROS generation by ultrafine PM was ameliorated by DFX and NAC, suggesting an iron-dependent mechanism. Despite the presence of mucus, ALI cultures displayed increased HO-1 expression. Intracellular PM was observed within vesicles, mitochondria, and free in the cytosol. The results indicate that, although the mucous layer appears to confer some protection against underground PM, ALI PBECs nonetheless detect PM and mount an antioxidant response. The combination of increased ROS-generating ability of the metal-rich ultrafine fraction and ability of PM to penetrate the mucous layer merits further research

Inhibition of Pim1 kinase, new therapeutic approach in virus-induced asthma exacerbations

Therapeutic options to treat virus-induced asthma exacerbations are limited and urgently needed. Therefore, we tested Pim1 kinase as potential therapeutic target in human rhinovirus (HRV) infections. We hypothesised that inhibition of Pim1 kinase reduces HRV replication by augmenting the interferon-induced anti-viral response due to increased activity of the janus kinase–signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK-STAT) pathway.Air–liquid interface (ALI) cultures of primary bronchial epithelial cells (PBECs) from healthy individuals and moderate-to-severe asthmatic volunteers were infected with HRV-16 with or without a specific Pim1 inhibitor; viral replication and induction of anti-viral responses were measured using RT-qPCR. Viral titres were measured by 50% tissue culture infective dose and release of interferon-?-induced protein 10 (IP-10) and RANTES protein assessed by ELISA. Phosphorylation of STAT-1 was determined using western blotting.Viral replication was reduced in ALI cultures of healthy and asthmatic PBECs treated with the Pim1 inhibitor. Using cultures from healthy donors, enhanced STAT-1 phosphorylation upon inhibition of Pim1 kinase activity resulted in increased mRNA expression of interferon-?, interleukin-29, IP-10 and RANTES 12?h after infection and increased protein levels of IP-10 and RANTES 24?h after infection.We have identified Pim1 kinase as novel target to reduce viral replication in ALI cultures of PBECs. This may open new avenues for therapeutic interventions in virus-induced asthma exacerbations

The influence on the environment of coastal structures recently built in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands today much attention is paid to the effect of coastal structures on the environment. In the past it was usual to quantify the effect of such a structure on its environment solely with the purpose of deciding whether that effect could imply any hazard to the structure itself (or to structures in the neighbourhood). Nowadays environmental impact studies are mainly carried out to see what possible changes the structure may bring about in the integral coastal system. However, changes in the coastal system can only be studied if information is already available regarding that coastal system. Therefore scientists and engineers from various disciplines, such as hydraulic engineering; sedimentology. geology, physical oceanography and marine biology have joined forces to describe and analyze the long·term and large-scale morphological evolution of the Dutch coastal zone as an integrated system.Hydraulic EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience

Long-term field comparison of multiple low-cost particulate matter sensors in an outdoor urban environment

Exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) air pollution is a leading risk factor for morbidity and mortality, associated with up to 8.9 million deaths/year worldwide. Measurement of personal exposure to PM is hindered by poor spatial resolution of monitoring networks. Low-cost PM sensors may improve monitoring resolution in a cost-effective manner but there are doubts regarding data reliability. PM sensor boxes were constructed using four low-cost PM micro-sensor models. Three boxes were deployed at each of two schools in Southampton, UK, for around one year and sensor performance was analysed. Comparison of sensor readings with a nearby background station showed moderate to good correlation (0.61&lt;r&lt;0.88, p&lt;0.0001), but indicated that low-cost sensor performance varies with different PM sources and background concentrations, and to a lesser extent relative humidity and temperature. This may have implications for their potential use in different locations. Data alsoindicates that these sensors can track short-lived events of pollution, especially in conjunction with wind data. We conclude that, with appropriate consideration of potential confounding factors, low-cost PM sensors may be suitable for PM monitoring where reference-standard equipment is not available or feasible, and that they may be useful in studying spatially localised airborne PM concentrations