Validity of residential traffic intensity as an estimate of long-term personal exposure to traffic-related air pollution among adults

The validity of traffic intensity near the home as an estimate for the personal long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution in an adult population was tested. Personal and near-home outdoor exposure to PM2.5, soot, NO, NO2, and NOx was monitored four to five times during 48 h periods in older adults. A group of 23 participants lived in high traffic intensity streets (>10000 vehicles/(24 h)), and 22 lived in low traffic intensity streets. The relation between average personal exposure and traffic intensity at the residential address was explored by taking indoor sources into account. Large differences in the measured outdoor concentrations between locations in high traffic and low traffic intensity streets were found for soot (68%), NO (127%), and NOx (35%). Differences were smaller for PM2.5 (14%) and NO2 (22%). Slightly elevated ratios were found for personal exposure to soot (1.15; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.01-1.30)when comparing adults living in high traffic intensity streets with adults living in low traffic intensity streets. For NO, increased personal exposure (1.16) was seen for the same comparison, but this difference failed to reach statistical significance (CI, 0.80-1.66). Traffic intensity on the street of residence predicted personal exposure to soot but not to PM2.5 or nitrogen oxides. Traffic intensity may not correlate well to personal exposure and accordingly substantial misclassification of exposure may occur when traffic intensity is used as an exposure indicator in epidemiological studies. Time spent in traffic and spending time outdoors were associated with increased personal exposure of soot and PM2.5, but not NOx.     

Improvements and limitation of soy protein-based adhesive: A review

Soy protein is known for its eco-friendly, sustainable, and biodegradable qualities that are likely used as raw material in producing bioadhesive. However, soy protein-based adhesive are lacking in terms of adhesive strength and water-resistance compared to commercial formaldehyde-based adhesives such as phenol and urea-formaldehyde resin. Therefore, continuous research has been done to improve adhesive performance. This can be done via physical or modification methods, including the usage of cross-linking agents, structural modification, enzymatic modification, and the addition of additives. This review will cover these modification methods that give significant enhancement to the water-resistance and adhesive strength of soy protein-based adhesives.     

Explainable image classification with evidence counterfactual

Pattern Analysis and Applications - The complexity of state-of-the-art modeling techniques for image classification impedes the ability to explain model predictions in an interpretable way. A...     

Biomarkers for intake of dairy fat and dairy products

The aim of this study was to correlate the fatty acids characteristic of dairy fat (14:0, 14:1, 15:0, 17:0 and 17:1) in adipose tissue, serum lipid fractions and the estimated intake of dairy fat, and to investigate whether they can be used as biomarkers for dairy fat/product intake. The highest correlations were observed between 14:0 in adipose tissue and the estimated intakes of 14:0 (r = 0.60) and dairy fat (r = 0.50), and between 15:0 in adipose tissue and the estimated intakes of 15:0 (r = 0.55) and dairy fat (r = 0.55). Among the fatty acids in serum lipid fractions, 15:0 in cholesteryl esters (CE) and triacylglycerols showed the highest correlation to both 15:0 in adipose tissue, intakes of 15:0, dairy fat and dairy products. The results from our study suggest that the contents of fatty acids characteristic of dairy fat (14:0, 14:1, 15:0, 17:0, 17:1) in adipose tissue might be used as markers not only for the intake of dairy fat, but also of dairy products (times/day). When adipose tissue specimens are not available, 15:0 in serum CE appears to be the best marker for dairy fat intake. It was also observed that fatty acids from dairy fat are incorporated differently into serum lipid fractions and adipose tissue.     

A note on a motion control problem for a placement machine

Assembling printed circuit boards efficiently using automated placement machines is a challenging task. Here, we focus on a motion control problem for a specific type of placement machines. More specifically, the problem is to establish movement patterns for the robot arm, the feeder rack, and—when appropriate—the worktable, of a sequential pick-and-place machine. In this note we show that a (popular) greedy strategy may not always yield an optimum solution. However, under the relevant Tchebychev metric, we can model the problem as a linear program, thereby establishing the existence of a polynomial time algorithm for this motion control problem. Finally, we give experimental evidence that computing optimal solutions to this motion control problem can yield significantly better solutions than those found by a greedy method.     

Surface scanning analysis of planar arrays of analytes with desorption electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry

The analysis of analytes deposited on, separated on, or otherwise distributed about a planar surface using desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry in a surface scanning sampling mode was investigated. The physical regions of the surface-impacting solvent/gas jet desorption/ionization plume were described. Under the conditions typical for desorption electrospray ionization used here, the impact plume formed an elliptical desorption/ionization region on the surface. Most effective desorption/ionization was obtained from a smaller elliptical area within the larger impact region that was centered on a point on-axis from the sprayer tip to the surface. Maximum signal from a given amount of material on a surface was observed with proper plume and sample alignment when the diameter of the sample spot was less than the diameter of the central high-efficiency desorption/ionization region of the impact plume. Solvent and gas flow out of this high-efficiency desorption/ionization region was found to limit analyte accessibility to this region via a "washing effect" when analytes were on smooth surfaces or on surfaces for which the analyte had little affinity. As such, the direction of surface scanning and scan speed during an analysis was found to be important for maximizing signal levels and signal reproducibility on particular surface types. Overall, the results presented illustrate means to improve analysis of sample spots on various types of surfaces using desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry in a surface scanning mode.     

Removal of estrogenicity in Swedish municipal sewage treatment plants

The human estrogen receptor alpha-test, hosted in a yeast strain, was used to quantify estrogenicity in three-week composite samples of untreated and treated effluents from 20 Swedish municipal sewage treatment plants. The treatment plants were selected to represent different treatment processes regarding chemical precipitation and microbial procedures. The discharge from Swedish domestic sewage treatment plants contained estrogenic compounds corresponding to <0.1-15 ng estradiol equivalents/L. Low levels of estrogenic activity were also found in a river receiving municipal effluents, 3.5-35 km downstream the outlet from a sewage treatment works. The range of estrogenicity in untreated, raw sewage effluents was found to be 1-30 ng estradiol equivalents/L. Generally, wastewater treatment reduced the estrogenicity and extended biological treatment was most effective in its removal. Activated sludge treatment tended to be more effective than trickling filters, whereas chemical precipitation using iron or aluminium salts without biological treatment showed little effectivity. The study showed that treatment methods in current use are able to eliminate or largely reduce estrogenicity in domestic wastewater.     

Method for short-term prediction of milk yield at the quarter level to improve udder health monitoring

Udder health problems are often associated with milk losses. These losses are different between quarters, as infected quarters are affected both by systemic and pathogen-specific local effects, whereas noninfected quarters are only subject to systemic effects. To gain insight in these losses and the milk yield dynamics during disease, it is essential to have a reliable reference for quarter-level milk yield in an unperturbed state, mimicking its potential yield. We developed a novel methodology to predict this quarter milk yield per milking session, using an historical data set of 504 lactations collected on a test farm by an automated milking system from DeLaval (Tumba, Sweden). Using a linear mixed model framework in which covariates associated with the linearized Wood model and the milking interval are included, we were able to describe quarter-level yield per milking session with a proportional error below 10%. Applying this model enables us to predict the milk yield of individual quarters 1 to 50 d ahead with a mean prediction error ranging between 8 and 20%, depending on the amount of historical data available to estimate the random effect covariates for the predicted lactation. The developed methodology was illustrated using 2 examples for which quarter-level milk losses are calculated during clinical mastitis. These showed that the quarter-level mixed model allows us to gain insight in quarter lactation dynamics and enables to calculate milk losses in different situations.