Improved methods are needed to assess the structure and activity of lesions on root surfaces in order to improve clinical decision making. Conventional visual and tactile methods for assessing lesion ...activity are not reliable, and the clinician is often unable to evaluate if the lesion is progressing or has remineralized. An important marker of an arrested lesion is a highly mineralized surface zone that forms when mineral is deposited in the outer layer of the lesion. In vitro studies have shown that a mineralized surface zone influences the kinetics of water evaporation and the surface temperature while drying. Temperature changes can be monitored by measuring the thermal emission with thermal imaging. Studies have also shown that the depth and severity of demineralization and the thickness of the highly mineralized transparent surface zone on arrested lesions can be measured nondestructively with optical coherence tomography (OCT). Thermal imaging at 8-µm to 13-µm wavelengths was completed on 30 test subjects with a suspected active root caries lesion by monitoring thermal emission from the tooth surfaces during 30 s of air drying. Lesions were also evaluated using cross-polarization OCT (CP-OCT) during lesion dehydration to identify transparent surface zones indicative of arrested lesions and determine if shrinkage occurred during drying. The overall thermal emission recorded during drying was significantly different (P < 0.001) when comparing sound tooth surfaces, lesion areas identified as arrested, and lesion areas identified as active, demonstrating that thermal imaging is a promising approach for the clinical assessment of lesion activity on root surfaces. Ten of the lesions in this study had distinct areas with transparent surface zones that were visible in CP-OCT images. Shrinkage was detected with CP-OCT during drying for 12 lesions. This study confirms that these novel approaches for assessing lesion activity on root surfaces can be implemented in vivo.
More than 10% of the global human population is now afflicted with kidney stones, which are commonly associated with other significant health problems including diabetes, hypertension and obesity. ...Nearly 70% of these stones are primarily composed of calcium oxalate, a mineral previously assumed to be effectively insoluble within the kidney. This has limited currently available treatment options to painful passage and/or invasive surgical procedures. We analyze kidney stone thin sections with a combination of optical techniques, which include bright field, polarization, confocal and super-resolution nanometer-scale auto-fluorescence microscopy. Here we demonstrate using interdisciplinary geology and biology (geobiology) approaches that calcium oxalate stones undergo multiple events of dissolution as they crystallize and grow within the kidney. These observations open a fundamentally new paradigm for clinical approaches that include in vivo stone dissolution and identify high-frequency layering of organic matter and minerals as a template for biomineralization in natural and engineered settings.
The South Central United States is a hot spot for anthropogenic methane (CH4) emissions, with contributions from the oil/gas (O&G) and animal agriculture sectors. During frontal weather events, ...airflow combines enhancements from these emissions into a large plume. In this study, we take CH4 and ethane (C2H6) observations from the Atmospheric Carbon and Transport‐America campaign and adjust O&G and animal agriculture emissions such that modeled CH4 and C2H6 enhancements match the observed plume. Results from the joint CH4‐C2H6 optimization indicate that emissions from the O&G sector are 1.8 ± 0.7 (2σ) times larger than EPA inventory estimates. These results match synthesis work from recent literature and reject the possibility that this increase compared to inventories is due to a potential bias in daytime‐only measurements of these facilities. Successful modeling from this study raises the possibility of using trace gas measurements along frontal crossings to solve for emissions in other regions of the United States.
Key Points
Methane and ethane observations from U.S. Midwest frontal flights are used to solve for emissions from oil/gas and animal agriculture
Methane emissions from oil/gas sectors in the South Central United States are 1.8 ± 0.7 (2σ) times larger than U.S. EPA inventory estimates
Measurements across frontal structures can provide opportunities to solve for regional emissions of trace gases in other regions
Production of coal and natural gas is responsible for one third of anthropogenic methane (CH4) emissions in the United States. Here we examine CH4 emissions from coal and natural gas production in ...southwestern Pennsylvania. Using a top‐down methodology combining measurements of CH4 and ethane, we conclude that while Environmental Protection Agency inventories appear to report emissions from coal accurately, emissions from unconventional natural gas are underreported in the region by a factor of 5 (±3). However, production‐scaled CH4 emissions from unconventional gas production in the Marcellus remain small compared to other basins due to its large production per well. After normalizing emissions by energy produced, total greenhouse gas emissions from Pennsylvania unconventional natural gas production produce half the carbon footprint compared to regionally produced coal, with carbon dioxide emissions from combustion being the dominant source of greenhouse gas emissions for both sources.
Key Points
Methane and ethane observations from aircraft are used to quantify methane emissions from coal and natural gas production in Pennsylvania
Methane emissions from coal production align with national estimates, whereas emissions from natural gas production are underestimated
Energy produced through natural gas production in Pennsylvania has half the carbon footprint compared to energy from coal mining
For the first time, carbon monoxide (CO) and formaldehyde (HCHO) satellite retrievals are used together with methane (CH4) and methyl choloroform (CH3CCl3 or MCF) surface measurements in an advanced ...inversion system. The CO and HCHO are respectively from the MOPITT and OMI instruments. The multi-species and multi-satellite dataset inversion is done for the 2005–2010 period. The robustness of our results is evaluated by comparing our posterior-modeled concentrations with several sets of independent measurements of atmospheric mixing ratios. The inversion leads to significant changes from the prior to the posterior, in terms of magnitude and seasonality of the CO and CH4 surface fluxes and of the HCHO production by non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC). The latter is significantly decreased, indicating an overestimation of the biogenic NMVOC emissions, such as isoprene, in the GEIA inventory. CO and CH4 surface emissions are increased by the inversion, from 1037 to 1394 TgCO and from 489 to 529 TgCH4 on average for the 2005–2010 period. CH4 emissions present significant interannual variability and a joint CO-CH4 fluxes analysis reveals that tropical biomass burning probably played a role in the recent increase of atmospheric methane.
We use observations from the April 2008 NASA ARCTAS aircraft campaign to the North American Arctic, interpreted with a global 3-D chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem), to better understand the ...sources and cycling of hydrogen oxide radicals (HOx≡H+OH+peroxy radicals) and their reservoirs (HOy≡HOx+peroxides) in the springtime Arctic atmosphere. We find that a standard gas-phase chemical mechanism overestimates the observed HO2 and H2O2 concentrations. Computation of HOx and HOy gas-phase chemical budgets on the basis of the aircraft observations also indicates a large missing sink for both. We hypothesize that this could reflect HO2 uptake by aerosols, favored by low temperatures and relatively high aerosol loadings, through a mechanism that does not produce H2O2. We implemented such an uptake of HO2 by aerosol in the model using a standard reactive uptake coefficient parameterization with γ(HO2) values ranging from 0.02 at 275 K to 0.5 at 220 K. This successfully reproduces the concentrations and vertical distributions of the different HOx species and HOy reservoirs. HO2 uptake by aerosol is then a major HOx and HOy sink, decreasing mean OH and HO2 concentrations in the Arctic troposphere by 32% and 31% respectively. Better rate and product data for HO2 uptake by aerosol are needed to understand this role of aerosols in limiting the oxidizing power of the Arctic atmosphere.
We use observations from two aircraft during the ICARTT campaign over the eastern United States and North Atlantic during summer 2004, interpreted with a global 3‐D model of tropospheric chemistry ...(GEOS‐Chem) to test current understanding of regional sources, chemical evolution, and export of NOx. The boundary layer NOx data provide top‐down verification of a 50% decrease in power plant and industry NOx emissions over the eastern United States between 1999 and 2004. Observed NOx concentrations at 8–12 km altitude were 0.55 ± 0.36 ppbv, much larger than in previous U.S. aircraft campaigns (ELCHEM, SUCCESS, SONEX) though consistent with data from the NOXAR program aboard commercial aircraft. We show that regional lightning is the dominant source of this upper tropospheric NOx and increases upper tropospheric ozone by 10 ppbv. Simulating ICARTT upper tropospheric NOx observations with GEOS‐Chem requires a factor of 4 increase in modeled NOx yield per flash (to 500 mol/flash). Observed OH concentrations were a factor of 2 lower than can be explained from current photochemical models, for reasons that are unclear. A NOy‐CO correlation analysis of the fraction f of North American NOx emissions vented to the free troposphere as NOy (sum of NOx and its oxidation products) shows observed f = 16 ± 10% and modeled f = 14 ± 9%, consistent with previous studies. Export to the lower free troposphere is mostly HNO3 but at higher altitudes is mostly PAN. The model successfully simulates NOy export efficiency and speciation, supporting previous model estimates of a large U.S. anthropogenic contribution to global tropospheric ozone through PAN export.
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) have fallen steadily across the US over the last 15 years. At the same time, NOx concentrations decrease on weekends relative to weekdays, largely without co-occurring changes ...in other gas-phase emissions, due to patterns of diesel truck activities. These trends taken together provide two independent constraints on the role of NOx in the nonlinear chemistry of atmospheric oxidation. In this context, we interpret interannual trends in wintertime ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) in the San Joaquin Valley of California, a location with the worst aerosol pollution in the US and where a large portion of aerosol mass is NH4NO3. Here, we show that NOx reductions have simultaneously decreased nighttime and increased daytime NH4NO3 production over the last decade. We find a substantial decrease in NH4NO3 since 2000 and conclude that this decrease is due to reduced nitrate radical-initiated production at night in residual layers that are decoupled from fresh emissions at the surface. Further reductions in NOx are imminent in California, and nationwide, and we make a quantitative prediction of the response of NH4NO3. We show that the combination of rapid chemical production and efficient NH4NO3 loss via deposition of gas-phase nitric acid implies that high aerosol days in cities in the San Joaquin Valley air basin are responsive to local changes in NOx within those individual cities. Our calculations indicate that large decreases in NOx in the future will not only lower wintertime NH4NO3 concentrations but also cause a transition in the dominant NH4NO3 source from nighttime to daytime chemistry.
Emissions from biomass burning in the Yucatan Yokelson, R. J.; Crounse, J. D.; DeCarlo, P. F. ...
Atmospheric chemistry and physics,
08/2009, Letnik:
9, Številka:
15
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
In March 2006 two instrumented aircraft made the first detailed field measurements of biomass burning (BB) emissions in the Northern Hemisphere tropics as part of the MILAGRO project. The aircraft ...were the National Center for Atmospheric Research C-130 and a University of Montana/US Forest Service Twin Otter. The initial emissions of up to 49 trace gas or particle species were measured from 20 deforestation and crop residue fires on the Yucatan peninsula. This included two trace gases useful as indicators of BB (HCN and acetonitrile) and several rarely, or never before, measured species: OH, peroxyacetic acid, propanoic acid, hydrogen peroxide, methane sulfonic acid, and sulfuric acid. Crop residue fires emitted more organic acids and ammonia than deforestation fires, but the emissions from the main fire types were otherwise fairly similar. The Yucatan fires emitted unusually high amounts of SO2 and particle chloride, likely due to a strong marine influence on this peninsula. As smoke from one fire aged, the ratio ΔO3/ΔCO increased to ~15% in 1×107 molecules/cm3) that were likely caused in part by high initial HONO (~10% of NOy). Thus, more research is needed to understand critical post emission processes for the second-largest trace gas source on Earth. It is estimated that ~44 Tg of biomass burned in the Yucatan in the spring of 2006. Mexican BB (including Yucatan BB) and urban emissions from the Mexico City area can both influence the March-May air quality in much of Mexico and the US.
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