Previously, we demonstrated a strong correlation between the amplitude of human speech and the emission rate of micron-scale expiratory aerosol particles, which are believed to play a role in ...respiratory disease transmission. To further those findings, here we systematically investigate the effect of different 'phones' (the basic sound units of speech) on the emission of particles from the human respiratory tract during speech. We measured the respiratory particle emission rates of 56 healthy human volunteers voicing specific phones, both in isolation and in the context of a standard spoken text. We found that certain phones are associated with significantly higher particle production; for example, the vowel /i/ ("need," "sea") produces more particles than /ɑ/ ("saw," "hot") or /u/ ("blue," "mood"), while disyllabic words including voiced plosive consonants (e.g., /d/, /b/, /g/) yield more particles than words with voiceless fricatives (e.g., /s/, /h/, /f/). These trends for discrete phones and words were corroborated by the time-resolved particle emission rates as volunteers read aloud from a standard text passage that incorporates a broad range of the phones present in spoken English. Our measurements showed that particle emission rates were positively correlated with the vowel content of a phrase; conversely, particle emission decreased during phrases with a high fraction of voiceless fricatives. Our particle emission data is broadly consistent with prior measurements of the egressive airflow rate associated with the vocalization of various phones that differ in voicing and articulation. These results suggest that airborne transmission of respiratory pathogens via speech aerosol particles could be modulated by specific phonetic characteristics of the language spoken by a given human population, along with other, more frequently considered epidemiological variables.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a surge in demand for facemasks to protect against disease transmission. In response to shortages, many public health authorities have recommended homemade masks as ...acceptable alternatives to surgical masks and N95 respirators. Although mask wearing is intended, in part, to protect others from exhaled, virus-containing particles, few studies have examined particle emission by mask-wearers into the surrounding air. Here, we measured outward emissions of micron-scale aerosol particles by healthy humans performing various expiratory activities while wearing different types of medical-grade or homemade masks. Both surgical masks and unvented KN95 respirators, even without fit-testing, reduce the outward particle emission rates by 90% and 74% on average during speaking and coughing, respectively, compared to wearing no mask, corroborating their effectiveness at reducing outward emission. These masks similarly decreased the outward particle emission of a coughing superemitter, who for unclear reasons emitted up to two orders of magnitude more expiratory particles via coughing than average. In contrast, shedding of non-expiratory micron-scale particulates from friable cellulosic fibers in homemade cotton-fabric masks confounded explicit determination of their efficacy at reducing expiratory particle emission. Audio analysis of the speech and coughing intensity confirmed that people speak more loudly, but do not cough more loudly, when wearing a mask. Further work is needed to establish the efficacy of cloth masks at blocking expiratory particles for speech and coughing at varied intensity and to assess whether virus-contaminated fabrics can generate aerosolized fomites, but the results strongly corroborate the efficacy of medical-grade masks and highlight the importance of regular washing of homemade masks.
Mechanistic hypotheses about airborne infectious disease transmission have traditionally emphasized the role of coughing and sneezing, which are dramatic expiratory events that yield both easily ...visible droplets and large quantities of particles too small to see by eye. Nonetheless, it has long been known that normal speech also yields large quantities of particles that are too small to see by eye, but are large enough to carry a variety of communicable respiratory pathogens. Here we show that the rate of particle emission during normal human speech is positively correlated with the loudness (amplitude) of vocalization, ranging from approximately 1 to 50 particles per second (0.06 to 3 particles per cm
) for low to high amplitudes, regardless of the language spoken (English, Spanish, Mandarin, or Arabic). Furthermore, a small fraction of individuals behaves as "speech superemitters," consistently releasing an order of magnitude more particles than their peers. Our data demonstrate that the phenomenon of speech superemission cannot be fully explained either by the phonic structures or the amplitude of the speech. These results suggest that other unknown physiological factors, varying dramatically among individuals, could affect the probability of respiratory infectious disease transmission, and also help explain the existence of superspreaders who are disproportionately responsible for outbreaks of airborne infectious disease.
Applying a high voltage to a metal electrode that is disconnected from a circuit rapidly induces a capacitive charge, which quickly relaxes after removal of the applied voltage. Here, we report that ...if the electrode is placed in air at a sufficiently high relative humidity and provided the connection between the high-voltage supply and the electrode is composed of two different metals, the expected capacitive charge is followed by a gradual increase in charge. Surprisingly, this extra charge persists after the removal of the applied voltage and even after physically removing the electrode from the Faraday cup used to measure the charge. We report the median charge, average charge rate, and residual charge for different applied voltages, different metal–metal connections, and varied humidity. We interpret the results in terms of a proposed water ionization mechanism and discuss the implications of the findings for high-voltage fluidic systems.
Although nanocrystal morphology is controllable using conventional colloidal synthesis, multiple characterization techniques are typically needed to determine key properties like the nucleation rate, ...induction time, growth rate, and the resulting morphology. Recently, researchers have demonstrated growth of nanocrystals by in situ electron beam reduction, offering direct observations of single nanocrystals and eliminating the need for multiple characterization techniques; however, they found nanocrystal morphologies consistent with two different growth mechanisms for the same electron beam parameters. Here we show that the electron beam current plays a role analogous to the concentration of reducing agent in conventional synthesis, by controlling the growth mechanism and final morphology of silver nanocrystals grown via in situ electron beam reduction. We demonstrate that low beam currents encourage reaction limited growth that yield nanocrystals with faceted structures, while higher beam currents encourage diffusion limited growth that yield spherical nanocrystals. By isolating these two growth regimes, we demonstrate a new level of control over nanocrystal morphology, regulated by the fundamental growth mechanism. We find that the induction threshold dose for nucleation is independent of the beam current, pixel dwell time, and magnification being used. Our results indicate that in situ electron microscopy data can be interpreted by classical models and that systematic dose experiments should be performed for all future in situ liquid studies to confirm the exact mechanisms underlying observations of nucleation and growth.
Influenza viruses are presumed, but not conclusively known, to spread among humans by several possible routes. We provide evidence of a mode of transmission seldom considered for influenza: airborne ...virus transport on microscopic particles called "aerosolized fomites." In the guinea pig model of influenza virus transmission, we show that the airborne particulates produced by infected animals are mainly non-respiratory in origin. Surprisingly, we find that an uninfected, virus-immune guinea pig whose body is contaminated with influenza virus can transmit the virus through the air to a susceptible partner in a separate cage. We further demonstrate that aerosolized fomites can be generated from inanimate objects, such as by manually rubbing a paper tissue contaminated with influenza virus. Our data suggest that aerosolized fomites may contribute to influenza virus transmission in animal models of human influenza, if not among humans themselves, with important but understudied implications for public health.
Abstract
Wearing surgical masks or other similar face coverings can reduce the emission of expiratory particles produced via breathing, talking, coughing, or sneezing. Although it is well established ...that some fraction of the expiratory airflow leaks around the edges of the mask, it is unclear how these leakage airflows affect the overall efficiency with which masks block emission of expiratory aerosol particles. Here, we show experimentally that the aerosol particle concentrations in the leakage airflows around a surgical mask are reduced compared to no mask wearing, with the magnitude of reduction dependent on the direction of escape (out the top, the sides, or the bottom). Because the actual leakage flowrate in each direction is difficult to measure, we use a Monte Carlo approach to estimate flow-corrected particle emission rates for particles having diameters in the range 0.5–20 μm. in all orientations. From these, we derive a flow-weighted overall number-based particle removal efficiency for the mask. The overall mask efficiency, accounting both for air that passes through the mask and for leakage flows, is reduced compared to the through-mask filtration efficiency, from 93 to 70% for talking, but from only 94–90% for coughing. These results demonstrate that leakage flows due to imperfect sealing do decrease mask efficiencies for reducing emission of expiratory particles, but even with such leakage surgical masks provide substantial control.
Direct observations of solution-phase nanoparticle growth using in situ liquid transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have demonstrated the importance of “non-classical” growth mechanisms, such as ...aggregation and coalescence, on the growth and final morphology of nanocrystals at the atomic and single nanoparticle scales. To date, groups have quantitatively interpreted the mean growth rate of nanoparticles in terms of the Lifshitz–Slyozov–Wagner (LSW) model for Ostwald ripening, but less attention has been paid to modeling the corresponding particle size distribution. Here we use in situ fluid stage scanning TEM to demonstrate that silver nanoparticles grow by a length-scale dependent mechanism, where individual nanoparticles grow by monomer attachment but ensemble-scale growth is dominated by aggregation. Although our observed mean nanoparticle growth rate is consistent with the LSW model, we show that the corresponding particle size distribution is broader and more symmetric than predicted by LSW. Following direct observations of aggregation, we interpret the ensemble-scale growth using Smoluchowski kinetics and demonstrate that the Smoluchowski model quantitatively captures the mean growth rate and particle size distribution.
Coffee contains a variety of organic acids (OAs) and chlorogenic acids (CGAs) that contribute to overall sensory properties. Large variations in preparation and measurement methodology across the ...literature complicate interpretation of general trends. Here, we perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of the published literature to elucidate the concentrations of OAs and CGAs in both Coffea arabica (arabica) and Coffea canephora (robusta), for both green coffee and roasted coffee at multiple roast levels. A total of 129 publications were found to report acid concentration measurements, yielding 8,634 distinct data points. Analysis of the full data set reveals several trends. First, roasted robusta has considerably more acidic compounds than arabica with 2 to 5 times as much total OAs, and much larger amounts of formic and acetic acid. As for CGAs, in both arabica and robusta 5-CQA is the major component, and progressive roasting decreases the concentration of all CGAs. The total amount of CGA present was more dependent on roast level than the type of coffee (arabica vs. robusta). Overall, this meta-analysis suggests that the increases in certain OAs with roast level might play more of a role in the sensory profile of dark roast coffees than previously suspected.
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