Development of a novel methodology for indoor emission source identification

The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a methodology to identify individual sources of emissions based on the measurements of mixed air samples and the emission signatures of individual materials previously determined by Proton Transfer Reaction-Mass Spectrometry (PTR-MS), an on-line analytical device. The methodology based on signal processing principles was developed by employing the method of multiple regression least squares (MRLS) and a normalization technique. Samples of nine typical building materials were tested individually and in combination, including carpet, ceiling material, gypsum board, linoleum, two paints, polyolefine, PVC and wood. Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions from each material were measured in a 50-liter small-scale chamber. Chamber air was sampled by PTR-MS to establish a database of emission signatures unique to each individual material. The same task was performed to measure combined emissions from material mixtures for the application and validation of the developed signal separation method. Results showed that the proposed method could identify the individual sources under laboratory conditions with two, three, five and seven materials present. Further experiments and investigation are needed for cases where the relative emission rates among different compounds may change over a long-term period

Invisible landscapes. Winds, experience and memory in Japanese coastal fishery

Drawing on a series of ethnographic cases of some fishing communities, the article explores the role of meteorological winds in Japanese coastal fisheries. In particular, it is argued that Japanese fishermen's ecological knowledge is strictly connected to memory that coexists with other institutional knowledge, such as meteorology, in a complex scenario of contestation and negotiation. The article stresses also the idea that fishermen's memory is implicitly subversive to the dominant native discourses on knowledge proposed by Japanese folklore studies, focused on its epistemological hierarchization (folk and scientific knowledge), or on the individualization of the intergenerational discrepancies between traditional and contemporary knowledge. It will attempt to show how the method of interpretation traditionally adopted by this academic discipline offers a vision of fishermen's ecological knowledge that is more susceptible to local and static evocations, and which is far from reflecting the complex relationship between coastal fisheries, memory and knowledge

Gaucher disease: Current issues in diagnosis and treatment

FWN – Publicaties zonder aanstelling Universiteit Leide