Exposure to organophosphate and polybrominated diphenyl ether flame retardants via indoor dust and childhood asthma

Although the ubiquitous detection of polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) and organophosphate flame retardants (PFRs) in indoor dust has raised health concerns, only very few epidemiological studies have assessed their impact on human health. Inhalation of dust is one of the exposure routes of FRs, especially in children and can be hazardous for the respiratory health. Moreover, PFRs are structurally similar to organophosphate pesticides, which have been associated with allergic asthma. Thus, we investigated whether the concentrations of PFRs and PBDEs in indoor dust are associated with the development of childhood asthma. We selected 110 children who developed asthma at 4 or at 8 years old and 110 matched controls from a large prospective birth cohort (BAMSE – Barn, Allergy, Milieu Stockholm Epidemiology). We analyzed the concentrations of 7 PFRs and 21 PBDEs in dust collected around 2 months after birth from the mother's mattress. The abundance rank in dust was as follows: TBOEP?TPHP>mmp‐TMPP>EHDPHP~TDCIPP>TCEP~TCIPP~BDE‐209?BDE‐99>BDE‐47>BDE‐153>BDE‐183>BDE‐100. There was no positive association between the FRs in mattress dust and the development of childhood asthma. In contrast, dust collected from mattresses of the mothers of children who would develop asthma contained significant lower levels of TPHP and mmp‐TMPP. This study provides data on a wide range of PFRs and PBDEs in dust samples and development of asthma in children.     

Wi-Fi fingerprinting based on collaborative confidence level training

Wi-Fi fingerprinting has been a popular indoor positioning technique with the advantage that infrastructures are readily available in most urban areas. However wireless signals are prone to fluctuation and noise, introducing errors in the final positioning result. This paper proposes a new fingerprint training method where a number of users train collaboratively and a confidence factor is generated for each fingerprint. Fingerprinting is carried out where potential fingerprints are extracted based on the confidence factor. Positioning accuracy improves by 40% when the new fingerprinting method is implemented and maximum error is reduced by 35%.     

Internet of Things cloud enabled MISSENARD index measurement for indoor occupants

Thermal comfort is an important factor in human body. It can seriously impact on the livelihood factors of human such as lifestyle, productivity, societal activity, and health of an individual. It holds tremendous adverse affect toward diminishing of tolerance to other environmental hazards too. In this paper, an Internet of Things based cloud enabled measurement of MISSENARD index is proposed. A prototype system is implemented based on the proposed novel architecture for measuring thermal comfort of the indoor occupants. The system is developed to apprehend the Internet of Things based multiple cloud services as an important enabler for conferring to MISSENARD index monitoring in real time. The developed system holds a novel way of smarter integration of sensor fueled data analytics with cloud supported visualization at the same time. It further validates the usability of several plug-ins, different Application Programming Interfaces (API), heterogeneous network communications, and low power, memory constrained yet cost effective processor altogether to testify the underlying theory of Internet of Things to become prevalent into a reality.     

Methods to reduce the CO2 concentration of educational buildings utilizing internal ventilation by transferred air

The aim of this study is to develop internal ventilation by transferred air to achieve a good indoor climate with low energy consumption in educational buildings with constant air volume (CAV) ventilation. Both measurements of CO₂ concentration and a multi‐room calculation model are presented. The study analyzes how to use more efficiently the available spaces and the capacity of CAV ventilation systems in existing buildings and the impact this has on the indoor air quality and the energy consumption of the ventilation. The temperature differences can be used to create natural ventilation airflows between neighboring spaces. The behavior of temperature‐driven airflows between rooms was studied and included in the calculation model. The effect of openings between neighboring spaces, such as doors or large apertures in the walls, on the CO₂ concentration was studied in different classrooms. The air temperatures and CO₂ concentrations were measured using a wireless, internet‐based measurement system. The multi‐room calculation model predicted the CO₂ concentration in the rooms, which was then compared with the measured ones. Using transferred air between occupied and unoccupied spaces can noticeably reduce the total mechanical ventilation rates needed to keep a low CO₂ concentration.     

POI共建LTE双路室分系统建设成本分析

详细论述了POI系统实现原理、POI系统技术特点、LTE室分双路常见解决方案;结合工程实际案例,着重论述了多家运营商是如何通过POI共建室分系统实现LTE室分双路建设方案的;详细分析了POI共建节约室分建设投资情况,为LTE双路室分系统共建方案的选取提供宝贵经验。     

A randomized double‐blind crossover study of indoor air filtration and acute changes in cardiorespiratory health in a First Nations community

Few studies have examined indoor air quality in First Nations communities and its impact on cardiorespiratory health. To address this need, we conducted a crossover study on a First Nations reserve in Manitoba, Canada, including 37 residents in 20 homes. Each home received an electrostatic air filter and a placebo filter for 1 week in random order, and lung function, blood pressure, and endothelial function measures were collected at the beginning and end of each week. Indoor air pollutants were monitored throughout the study period. Indoor PM_2.5 decreased substantially during air filter weeks relative to placebo (mean difference: 37 μg/m³, 95% CI: 10, 64) but remained approximately five times greater than outdoor concentrations owing to a high prevalence of indoor smoking. On average, air filter use was associated with a 217‐ml (95% CI: 23, 410) increase in forced expiratory volume in 1 s, a 7.9‐mm Hg (95% CI: ?17, 0.82) decrease in systolic blood pressure, and a 4.5‐mm Hg (95% CI: ?11, 2.4) decrease in diastolic blood pressure. Consistent inverse associations were also observed between indoor PM_2.5 and lung function. In general, our findings suggest that reducing indoor PM_2.5 may contribute to improved lung function in First Nations communities.     

Comparative Study of 9×19 mm Ammunition Combustion Products and Residues

During the last decades, authorities’ awareness on environmental and human health impact at national and international level has increased in the field of small arms ammunition containing lead and antimony. Thus, the evolution of environmental policies regarding production and use of heavy metals and their compounds, especially in EU countries, implied extensive studies on the environmental implications of 9×19 mm caliber ammunition use, especially in indoor shooting ranges. In this context, the paper describes the experimental studies performed on Pb‐containing conventional FMJ (full metal jacketed) ammunition and comparative measurements on new ammunition designed for training. The combustion products and residues from conventional Pb‐containing ammunition and Cu‐based “greener” ammunition were compared in terms of gaseous products, metal concentration in aerosols and metal concentrations in solid residues. Gas emissions and solid residues were measured for four different types of ammunitions. The results showed that the copper content of the residue is significantly higher in case of Cu‐containing composite bullets. For the ammunition equipped with Pb bullet, an important percentage of the Pb residue is generated by erosion of the exposed part of the bullet core. On the other hand, the ammunition containing Cu‐composite bullet generates large quantities of Cu residues, which have similar environmental impact and less impact on human health. Gas analysis indicated the presence of CO and NO_x and, surprisingly, high concentrations of HCN, CH₄, and NH₃. Lower gas concentrations are obtained for the composite bullets due to an incomplete combustion of gun propellant.     

A novel indoor geo-location method using MIMO array

In a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output （MIMO） Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing （OFDM） based Wireless Local Area Network （WLAN） system, both Access Points （APs） and Mobile Terminals （MTs） are configured with multiple antennas, to make novel indoor geo-location method possible. In this paper, we presented a novel Least Square Support Vector Machine （LS-SVM） based data fusion algorithm to fuse signal strength measurements for indoor geo-location using only a single AP with MIMO arrays. We evaluate our proposed algorithms under indoor environments by MATLAB simulations. Simulation results show that our MIMO-based algorithm is superior to conventional least square algorithm.     

室内无线传感器网络及其应用

介绍了传统无线传感器网络的起源、发展和现状,分析了室内环境对传统无线传感器网络技术的挑战,提出了一种新颖的室内无线传感器网络节点的构架设计方案;最后展望了室内无线传感器网络技术的应用前景。     

等离子体室内空气净化技术研究成果与探讨

讨论了绝缘屏障放电和脉冲电晕放电应用于空气净化的实验,并比较了实验结果;研究了用交流屏障型等离子体反应器进行香烟烟雾气味控制的实验,并对结果进行了分析;阐述了等离子体杀菌消毒的原理,研究了不同菌种的平面试样实验。