Search results for "Indoor"

Unconventional Reducing Gases Monitoring in Everyday Places

2017

Abstract Air pollution, be it indoors or outdoors, is a major environmental health concern as it can lead to serious health effects, such as respiratory diseases, including asthma and lung cancer. Much progress has been made in Europe in improving outdoor air quality and limit values have been set for several pollutants. However, indoor air quality also requires attention because this is where we spend most of our time. Measurements at appropriate spatial and temporal scales are essential for understanding and monitoring heterogeneous environments with complex and highly variable emission sources, such as in urban areas. However, the costs and complexity of conventional air quality measurem…

Formaldehyde: Catalytic Oxidation as a Promising Soft Way of Elimination

2013

International audience; Compared to other molecules such as benzene, toluene, xylene, and chlorinated compounds, the catalytic oxidation of formaldehyde has been studied rarely. However, standards for the emission level of this pollutant will become more restrictive because of its extreme toxicity even at very low concentrations in air. As a consequence, the development of a highly efficient process for its selective elimination is needed. Complete catalytic oxidation of formaldehyde into CO2 and H2O using noble-metal-based catalysts is a promising method to convert this pollutant at room temperature, making this process energetically attractive from an industrial point of view. However, th…

Indoor air pesticide in dwellings of breastfeeding mothers of the Valencian Region (Spain): Levels, exposure and risk assessment

2021

This study assessed the inhalation risk associated with indoor pesticide concentrations in the dwellings of 41 lactating mothers living in the Valencian Region, Spain, who were participants in the BETTERMILK project. Twenty-eight substances were investigated, including pyrethroid (PYRs), organophosphate (OPPs), and organochlorine (OCPs) pesticides. Bifenthrin, cypermethrin, lambda-cyhalothrin, malathion, permethrin and pyrimethanil were detected with frequencies ranging from 2% (malathion) to 80% (cypermethrin), and with an arithmetic mean concentration ranging from 4.1 ng m(-3) (bifenthrin) to 12.1 ng m-(3) (cypermethrin). The indoor air analysis was combined with several surveys to assess…

La qualità dell’aria indoor: una priorità ambientale e sanitaria

2009

Effect of indoor nitrogen dioxide on lung function in urban environment

2015

BACKGROUND: High levels of indoor NO2 are associated with increased asthma symptoms and decreased expiratory peak flows in children. We investigated the association of exposure to domestic indoor NO2, objectively measured in winter and spring, with respiratory symptoms and lung function in a sample of adolescents from a southern Mediterranean area. METHODS: From a large school population sample (n=2150) participating in an epidemiological survey in the urban area of the City of Palermo (southern Italy), a sub-sample of 303 adolescents was selected which furnished an enriched sample for cases of current asthma. All subjects were evaluated by a health questionnaire, skin prick tests and spiro…

First molecular detection of mycobacterium bovis in environmental samples from a French region with endemic bovine tuberculosis

2016

Aims The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of Mycobacterium bovis (the causative agent of bovine tuberculosis, bTB) in environmental matrices within a French region (Cote d'Or) affected by this zoonotic disease. Methods and Results We report here the development and the use of molecular detection assays based on qPCR (double fluorescent dye labelled probe) to monitor the occurrence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) or M. bovis in environmental samples collected in pastures where infected cattle and wildlife had been reported. Three qPCR assays targeting members of the MTBC (IS1561’ and Rv3866 loci) or M. bovis (RD4 locus) were developed or refined from existing ass…

SHARP: Environment and Person Independent Activity Recognition with Commodity IEEE 802.11 Access Points

2022

In this article we present SHARP, an original approach for obtaining human activity recognition (HAR) through the use of commercial IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) devices. SHARP grants the possibility to discern the activities of different persons, across different time-spans and environments. To achieve this, we devise a new technique to clean and process the channel frequency response (CFR) phase of the Wi-Fi channel, obtaining an estimate of the Doppler shift at a radio monitor device. The Doppler shift reveals the presence of moving scatterers in the environment, while not being affected by (environment-specific) static objects. SHARP is trained on data collected as a person performs seven differe…

The associations of indoor environment and psychosocial factors on the subjective evaluation of Indoor Air Quality among lower secondary school stude…

2017

Subjective evaluation of Indoor Air Quality (subjective IAQ) reflects both building-related and psychosocial factors, but their associations have rarely been studied other than on the individual level in occupational settings and their interactions have not been assessed. Therefore, we studied whether schools' observed indoor air problems and psychosocial factors are associated with subjective IAQ and their potential interactions. The analysis was performed with a nationwide sample (N = 195 schools/26946 students) using multilevel modeling. Two datasets were merged: (i) survey data from students, including information on schools' psychosocial environment and subjective IAQ, and (ii) data fr…

Integration of WiFi ToF Positioning System in the Open, Flexible and Adaptive WiSHFUL Architecture

2017

We integrate a prototypeWiFi Time-of-Flight (ToF) ranging and positioning system in the WiSHFUL software platforms and hardware radios for experimental prototyping. Users have access to ToF measurements as well as computed positions through unified programming interfaces that make possible to investigate innovative positioning and networking solutions. TRUE pub

A Study on Outdoor and Indoor Climate to satisfy particular Requisites in Museum. The case of the Punic Ship in the Marsala's Archaeological Museum

2003

In the Archaeological Museum in Marsala are keept many archaeological finds discovered in the sea near the city. The most important is the wooden hull of an ancient punic ship found some years ago. The rests of the ship have been submitted to impregnation with PEG, to eliminate the water and the salts absorbed the sea mud, and then is exposed inside a protective awning of plastic material, build up in one of the rooms, in order to contain as much as possible the indoor climatic variations. The responsibles of the museum wants now expose the finds in an free environment in which fixed and steady conditions can be kept. The authors have been requested to study an air condition system that can…