Abstract
This study was conducted to develop a supplementary material on the modes of heat transfer for promoting STEM learning among grade 7 students. The supplementary material went through the ...following stages of development: identification of the topic, draft, evaluation by the thesis adviser and panel members, revision, final evaluation by the in-service teachers and preservice teachers, test for readability, and final revision. The developed supplementary material was found suited for the Grade 7 students by the use of the McLaughlin SMOG formula for the readability. Hence, the supplementary material is highly commendable as an instructional material and it can be a tool for promoting an effective STEM learning.
The goal of this research was to investigate the health effects of winter pollution on various occupations in Lahore and its neighboring peri-urban areas. A questionnaire survey, key informants, and ...focused group discussions were employed to collect data, which included demographic, socioeconomic, and health-related information. Descriptive statistics and the multivariate logistic regression model (MLRM) were used to examine the effects of pollution on exposed occupational groups who experienced symptoms such as coughing, shortness of breath, and eye discomfort. According to data from interviews, MLRM revealed that individuals working in various occupations with outdoor and indoor environments are equally affected by winter smog, but being middle-aged (odds ratio OR = 5.73), having a history of a respiratory ailment (OR = 4.06), and location (OR = 2.26) all play important roles in determining health. However, less educated people, elders, and people who already live in polluted areas are more likely to develop respiratory health symptoms. During the smog incident, it was determined that diverse health and socioeconomic factors exacerbate an individual’s negative health impact more than others.
A review of the current literature shows there is no clear consensus regarding the reaction mechanisms of air-borne aromatic compounds such as toluene by photocatalytic oxidation. Potential oxidation ...reactions over TiO2 or TiO2-based catalysts under ultraviolet and visible (UV/VIS) illumination are most commonly considered for removal of these pollutants. Along the pathways from a model pollutant, toluene, to final mineralization products (CO2 and H2O), the formation of several intermediates via specific reactions include parallel oxidation reactions and formation of less-reactive intermediates on the TiO2 surface. The latter may occupy active adsorption sites and causes drastic catalyst deactivation in some cases. Major hazardous gas-phase intermediates are benzene and formaldehyde, classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as Group 1 carcinogenic compounds. Adsorbed intermediates leading to catalyst deactivation are benzaldehyde, benzoic acid, and cresols. The three most typical pathways of toluene photocatalytic oxidation are reviewed: methyl group oxidation, aromatic ring oxidation, and aromatic ring opening.
The experimental system consists of the fine coal compound dry separating test prototype and the microwave desulfurization system. The compound dry separating test prototype consists of feeding, ...separation, dust removing and discharging parts.
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•A combined ash reduction and desulfurization process for 6–0 mm fine coal was proposed.•The Ep was 0.115 when high sulfur fine coal was cleaned by compound dry cleaning.•The organic sulfur can be effectively removed by microwave desulfurization apparatus.•The fine coal can be separated effectively by the combined desulfurization process.
The throughputof high-ash and high-sulfur fine-grain coal (0–6 mm) increases year by year. The seriousproblemof direct combustion is the formation of acid rain and smog. Therefore, the pre-combustion desulfurization and ash reduction can reduce environmental pollution. A combined process of dry separation and microwave desulfurization for the cleaning of the 0–6 mm fine coal was applied. The effectsofgas velocity, vibration amplitude and frequency on the removal ofinorganic sulfurwere analyzed systematically. At the same time, the effects of additives, microwave power, irradiation time and temperature on the removal of organic sulfur in the microwave desulfurization reactorwere investigated. The results show that the compounddry separator cansorts the 0–6 mm fine coal under the optimal operating parameters (A = 3 mm, f = 22.5 Hz, v = 0.68 m3/s). After the separation, the yield, ash and sulfur contents of the pre-separatedclean coalis 63.6%, 12.4% and 4.12%, respectively.The compounddry separatorcan effectively remove mineral impurities such as inorganic sulfur. The ash is reducedapparently.However,the organic sulphide cannot be removedby the separator. Asthe pre-separatedclean coal has high sulfur content thatis mainly organic sulfide, the microwave desulfurization reactoris used to remove this part of organic sulfur. The results show that the NaOH solution additive is more beneficial to improve the microwave desulfurization. The desulfurization rate increase with the increasing of temperature and radiationtime and the irradiation time has amore obviouseffect. After the microwave desulfurization the yield, sulfur and ash contents of the clean coal are60.8%, 0.98% and 9.74%, respectively. As a result, the microwave desulfurization processcan effectively remove the organic sulfur compounds.
Summary
Background
The British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) develops and produces patient information leaflets (PILs) for British clinicians and the general public, and its website provides ...access to all the PILs. Health literacy across the UK remains variable. Readability instruments assess the comprehensibility of text, predominately using a composite of sentence length and/or word‐syllable number. Instruments usually report text readability categorized by United States (US) grades; ideally, health literature should be rated at US grade ≤ 6 (UK Year 7; age 11–12 years).
Methods
In collaboration with the BAD, PILs on the BAD website (n = 203) were downloaded for readability assessment. PILs were processed prior to analysis using Readability Studio software (Oleander Software, Vandalia, OH, USA). Established readability metrics were used: Flesch–Kincaid (FK), Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG), Gunning fog index (GFI), Fry, FORCAST and Flesch Reading Ease (FRE).
Results
The mean (95% CI) US grade levels for all BAD PILs were: 9.8 (9.7–10.0) for FK, 12.1 (12.0–12.3) for SMOG, 11.8 (11.6–11.9) for GFI, 11.5 (11.1–11.8) for Fry and 10.7 (10.6–10.8) for FORCAST. For FRE, the level is reported from a normal spectrum of 0–100, and was found to be 52.2 (95% CI 34.0–78.0) in this study. In the UK context, the mean readability levels of the BAD PILs were rated as Year 10 (age 14–15 years) for FK and Year 13 (aged 17–18 years) for SMOG. For FK, outputs, only 1.0% of PILs (2 of 203) were the recommended US grade ≤ 6 according to FK, and for SMOG rating, none was rated at this level.
Discussion
The majority of BAD PILs have been written at a level that will be challenging for some patients to read. Reducing sentence length and aiming for shorter words will improve accessibility.
Using six readability instruments, this study assessed the readability of the British Association of Dermatologists’ (BAD) patient information leaflets (PILs). The readability measures ascertained that most PILs provided by the BAD are written at a level that may not be comprehensible to a proportion of patients. We compare these findings to the literature and highlight methods for the BAD Clinical Standards Unit to improve readability for future PILs.
α-Pinene is a biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) that significantly contributes to secondary organic aerosols (SOA) in the atmosphere due to its high emission rate, reactivity, and SOA yield. ...However, the SOA yield measured in chamber studies from α-pinene photooxidation is limited in a purified air matrix. Assessing SOA formation from α-pinene photooxidation in real urban ambient air based on studies conducted in purified air matrices may be subject to uncertainties. In this study, α-pinene photooxidation and SOA yield were investigated in a smog chamber in the presence of NO and SO2 under purified air and ambient air matrices. With the accumulation of ozone (O3) during the photooxidation, an increasing part of α-pinene was consumed by O3 and finally nearly half of the α-pinene was oxidized by O3, facilitating the production of highly oxidized organic molecules and thereby SOA formation. Although the ambient air we introduced as matrix air was largely clean, with initial organic aerosol mass concentrations of ~1.5 μg m−3, the α-pinene SOA yield in the ambient air matrix was 42.3 ± 5.3%, still higher than that of 32.4 ± 0.4% in the purified air matrix. The chemical characterization of SOA by the high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS) revealed that CxHy accounted for 53.7 ± 1.1% of the total signal in the ambient air matrix experiments, higher than 48.1 ± 0.3% in the purified air, while CxHyO and CxHyO>1 together constituted 45.0 ± 0.9% in the ambient air matrix, lower than 50.1 ± 1.0% in the purified air. The O:C ratio in the ambient air matrix experiments was 0.41 ± 0.01, lower than 0.46 ± 0.01 in the purified air. The higher SOA yield of α-pinene in the ambient air matrix compared to that in the purified air matrix was partly due to the presence of initial aerosols in the ambient air, which facilitated the low volatile organic compounds produced from photochemical oxidation to enter the aerosol phase through gas-particle partitioning. The in-situ aerosol acidity calculated by the ISORROPIA-II model in the ambient air matrix experiments was approximately six times higher than that in purified air, and the higher SOA yield in the ambient air matrix experiments might also be attributed to acid-catalyzed SOA formation.
Higher temperatures caused by increasing greenhouse gas concentrations are predicted to exacerbate photochemical smog if precursor emissions remain constant. We perform a statistical analysis of 21 ...years of ozone and temperature observations across the rural eastern U.S. The climate penalty factor is defined as the slope of the ozone/temperature relationship. For two precursor emission regimes, before and after 2002, the climate penalty factor was consistent across the distribution of ozone observations. Prior to 2002, ozone increased by an average of ∼3.2 ppbv/°C. After 2002, power plant NOx emissions were reduced by 43%, ozone levels fell ∼10%, and the climate penalty factor dropped to ∼2.2 ppbv/°C. NOx controls are effective for reducing photochemical smog and might lessen the severity of projected climate change penalties. Air quality models should be evaluated against these observations, and the climate penalty factor metric may be useful for evaluating the response of ozone to climate change.
Air pollution and the respiratory microbiome Hamidou Soumana, Illiassou; Carlsten, Christopher
Journal of allergy and clinical immunology,
July 2021, 2021-07-00, 20210701, Letnik:
148, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
To maintain homeostasis in the respiratory tract (RT) in response to constant environmental stimuli, there exists a complex interplay between the microbiome and the immune system.3 This homeostasis ...may be disturbed by environmental pollutants, as controlled human exposure studies have revealed that exposure to diesel exhaust decreases the level of lung antimicrobial peptides.4 This article advocates for more research to improve the current understanding of air pollution effects on lung microbiome composition and metabolic functions. ...characterizing the ability of the lung microbiota to metabolize pollutants and respond to the resulting metabolites will help manage the overall impact on respiratory health.Microbiome of the RT Culture-independent techniques have enabled characterization of the lung microbiome, which is a collection of microorganisms that are interconnected with each other and the host, participating in maintaining homeostasis and immune response. ...microbes and toxic metabolites can cross the epithelial layer, leading to systemic immune activation and alteration of the lung microbiome (Fig 1).The microbiome of polluted air The development of air sampling devices and sensitive microbiome sequencing methods have enabled characterization of air pollution microbiomes (eg, the organisms suspended in air along with, or directly attached to, other PM, including that which is combustion-derived) in cities such as Beijing.9 Although what is generally considered “clean air” will contain some microbial species, analysis of the air pollution microbiome during days with severe smog showed that the relative abundance of respiratory pathogens in the polluted air is positively correlated with PM concentrations. Remarkably, Cao et al9 found that bacteria were the most abundant portion of the microbiome reads in samples of PM2.5 and PM10, accounting for 86.1% and 80.8% of the reads, respectively, followed by eukaryotes (13% and 18.3%, respectively), archaea (0.8%), and viruses (0.1%). Since evidence for microbes does not necessarily prove viability, it is noteworthy that Mao et al10 demonstrated that the microbiome associated with polluted air contains live bacteria, including bacteria of the genera Pseudomonas, Moraxella, Micrococcus, Streptomyces, and Bacillus.
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