Chemical composition of outdoor airborne particles at urban schools and possible implications for the air quality in classrooms

Vehicle emissions are a significant source of fine particles (Dp < 2.5 µm) in an urban environment. These fine particles have been shown to have detrimental health effects, with children thought to be more susceptible. Vehicle emissions are mainly carbonaceous in nature, and carbonaceous aerosols can be defined as either elemental carbon (EC) or organic carbon (OC). EC is a soot-like material emitted from primary sources while OC fraction is a complex mixture of hundreds of organic compounds from either primary or secondary sources (Cao et al., 2006). Therefore the ratio of OC/EC can aid in the identification of source. The purpose of this paper is to use the concentration of OC and EC in fine particles to determine the levels of vehicle emissions in schools. It is expected that this will improve the understanding of the potential exposure of children in a school environment to vehicle emissions

Diversity of bet-hedging strategies in microbial communities-Recent cases and insights

Microbial communities are continuously exposed to unpredictable changes in their environment. To thrive in such dynamic habitats, microorganisms have developed the ability to readily switch phenotypes, resulting in a number of differently adapted subpopulations expressing various traits. In evolutionary biology, a particular case of phenotypic heterogeneity that evolved in an unpredictably changing environment has been defined as bet‐hedging. Bet‐hedging is a risk‐spreading strategy where isogenic populations stochastically (randomly) diversify their phenotypes, often resulting in maladapted individuals that suffer lower reproductive success. This fitness trade‐off in a specific environment may have a selective advantage upon the sudden environmental shift. Thus, a bet‐hedging strategy allows populations to persist in very dynamic habitats, but with a particular fitness cost. In recent years, numerous examples of phenotypic heterogeneity in different microorganisms have been observed, some suggesting bet‐hedging. Here, we highlight the latest reports concerning bet‐hedging phenomena in various microorganisms to show how versatile this strategy is within the microbial realms. This article is categorized under: Infectious Diseases > Molecular and Cellular Physiology

52 Realizacja techniki wielkopolowej w napromienianiu ziarnicy złośliwej przy wykorzystaniu systemu przestrzennego planowania teleradioterapii

W roku 1887 w Centrum Onkologii W Warszawie do rutynowego użycia wprowadzono system przestrzennego planowania teleradioterapi TMS-Helax. Umożliwiło to poprawienie jakości planowania w techtechnice wielkopolowej, a zarazem spowodowało szereg zmian w sposobie realizacji tej techniki.Przy leczeniu chłoniaków stosowana jest obecnie wiązka fotonów o energii 6 MeV, która w porównaniu ze stosowaną dotychczas wiązką kobaltową gwarantuje bardziej jednorodny rozkład dawki. Planowanie leczenia odbywa się każdorazowo w oparciu o badanie CT, przy czym skany wykonywane są w całym pasie leczenia z gęstością jeden skan na 1–2 cm. Niemal we wszystkich przypadkach stosowana jest technika izocentryczna. Napromienianie obu pól: przedniego i tylnego odbywa się bez zmiany pozycji ciała pacjenta. Wszyscy pacjenci mają przygotowane osłony indywidualne (ochrona płuc, krtani, nerek). Ich położenie jest weryfikowane poprzez wykonanie zdjęć sprawdzających na akceleratorze. W trakcie radioterapii stosowany jest woskowy bolus umieszczony pod szyją pacjenta, który ma podwójne zadanie: stabilizuje pozycję ciała oraz spełnia rolę kompensatora, dzięki któremu dawka w obszarze szyi jest bliska dawce w punkcie referencyjnym (pkt referencyjny znajduje się w połowie AP, na osi wiązek).W przypadku konieczności łączenia pól odstęp dzymiędzy polami dobierany jest indywidualnie poprzez analizę rozkładu dawki w przekroju strzałkowym

Rapid e-learning tools on the moodle platform

One of the most frequently highlighted problems regarding online teaching reported by teachers is the time and effort required to prepare and regularly update attractive e-content. This is particularly true for multimedia content. On the other hand, the problem often reported by students is the low aesthetic value and teachers’ failure to produce materials that students deem to be aesthetically attractive. This article presents some suggestions on possible ways to control and manage the visual side of e-content

Statistical characterisation of bio-aerosol background in an urban environment

In this paper we statistically characterise the bio-aerosol background in an urban environment. To do this we measure concentration levels of naturally occurring microbiological material in the atmosphere over a two month period. Naturally occurring bioaerosols can be considered as noise, as they mask the presence of signals coming from biological material of interest (such as an intentionally released biological agent). Analysis of this 'biobackground' was undertaken in the 1-10 um size range and a 3-9% contribution was found to be biological in origin - values which are in good agreement with other studies reported in the literature. A model based on the physics of turbulent mixing and dispersion was developed and validated against this analysis. The Gamma distribution (the basis of our model) is shown to comply with the scaling laws of the concentration moments of our data, which enables us to universally characterise both biological and non-biological material in the atmosphere. An application of this model is proposed to build a framework for the development of novel algorithms for bio-aerosol detection and rapid characterisation.Comment: 14 Pages, 8 Figure

Subpicosecond exciton dynamics in polyfluorene films from experiment and microscopic theory

The authors acknowledge financial support from the UK EPSRC (Grants EP/E065066/1, EP/E062636/1, EP/J009318/1 and EP/J009019/1), from the EPSRC Scottish Centre for Doctoral training in Condensed Matter Physics and from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme under Grant Agreement 321305.Electronic energy transfer (EET) in organic materials is a key mechanism that controls the efficiency of many processes, including light harvesting antennas in natural and artificial photosynthesis, organic solar cells, and biological systems. In this paper we have examined EET in solid-state thin-films of polyfluorene, a prototypical conjugated polymer, with ultrafast photoluminescence experiments and theoretical modeling. We observe EET occurring on a 680 ± 300 fs time scale by looking at the depolarisation of photoluminescence. An independent, predictive microscopic theoretical model is built by defining 125 000 chromophores containing both spatial and energetic disorder appropriate for a spin-coated thin film. The model predicts time-dependent exciton dynamics, without any fitting parameters, using the incoherent Förster-type hopping model. Electronic coupling between the chromophores is calculated by an improved version of the usual line-dipole model for resonant energy transfer. Without the need for higher level interactions, we find that the model is in general agreement with the experimentally observed 680 ± 300 fs depolarisation caused by EET. This leads us to conclude that femtosecond EET in polyfluorene can be described well by conventional resonant energy transfer, as long as the relevant microscopic parameters are well captured. The implications of this finding are that dipole-dipole resonant energy transfer can in some circumstances be fully adequate to describe ultrafast EET without needing to invoke strong or intermediate coupling mechanisms.PostprintPeer reviewe

Side-chain influence on the mass density and refractive index of polyfluorenes and star-shaped oligofluorene truxenes

This work is part of the TIRAMISU project, funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n◦284747 and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) grants EP/J009016/1 and EP/F059922/1. I.D.W.S. and P.J.S. are Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holders.The density of organic semiconductor films is an important quantity because it is related to intermolecular spacing which in turn determines the electronic and photophysical properties. We report thin film density and refractive index measurements of polyfluorenes and star-shaped oligofluorene truxene molecules. An ellipsometer and a procedure using a spectrophotometer were used to determine film thickness and mass of spin-coated films, respectively. We present a study of the effect of alkyl side-chain length on the volumetric mass density and refractive index of the materials studied. The density measured for poly(9,9-di-n-octylfluorene) (PF8) was 0.88 ± 0.04 g/cm3 and decreased with longer alkyl side chains. For the truxene molecule with butyl side chains (T3 butyl), we measured a density of 0.90 ± 0.04 g/cm3, which also decreased with increasing side-chain length.PostprintPeer reviewe