:  Anthrax in herbivorous wildlife and livestock is generally assumed to be transmitted via ingestion or inhalation of Bacillus anthracis spores. Although recent studies have highlighted the importance of the ingestion route for anthrax transmission, little is known about the inhalational route in natural systems. Dust bathing could aerosolize soilborne pathogens such as B. anthracis, exposing ...

Charging of individual dust particles in contact with hot plasmas is studied by numerical methods. The dust particle is treated as a rigid solid body, composed by either perfectly insulating or conducting material. The collisionless plasma, consisting of electrons and singly charged ions, is simulated by Particle-in-Cell methods in two spatial dimensions. It is demonstrated that the surface con...

Variation in blood lead concentration is caused by a complex interaction of environmental, social, nutritional, and genetic factors. We evaluated the association between blood lead concentration and a vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphism. Environmental samples and blood were analyzed for lead, nutritional and behavioral factors were assessed, and VDR -Fok1 genotype was determined in 245 c...

Atmospheric dust aerosols affect the Earth’s climate by scattering and absorbing radiation and by modifying cloud properties. Recent experiments have indicated that electric fields produced in dusty phenomena such as dust storms and dust devils could enhance the emission of dust aerosols. However, the generation of electric fields in dusty phenomena is poorly understood. To address this problem...

During the last decade decade there has been a continually growing interest to the complex dusty plasma physics [1], [2]. A dusty plasma is a low temperature plasma with immersed dust grains of micrometer size. These grains are quickly charged under plasma exposition and become by a component of the plasma. The main features of this component are the very large and variable electric charge (up ...

This study examines the vertically resolved cloud measurements from the cloud-aerosol lidar with orthogonal polarization instrument on Aqua satellite from June 2006 through May 2007 to estimate the extent to which the mixed cloud-phase composition can vary according to the ambient temperature, an important concern for the uncertainty in calculating cloud radiative effects. At -20 degrees C, the...

[1] Aerosol optical properties and the spectral behavior of the aerosol optical depth (AOD) over Kanpur, an urban-industrial city in the Ganga basin, have been presented for the first time. Measurements by the ground-based Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) during January 2001 to December 2003 show pronounced seasonal influence, with maximum dust loading during the premonsoon season (April–May)....

The characterization of the Galactic foregrounds has been shown to be the main obstacle in the challenging quest to detect primordial B-modes in the polarized microwave sky. We make use of the Planck-HFI 2015 data release at high frequencies to place new constraints on the properties of the polarized thermal dust emission at high Galactic latitudes. Here, we specifically study the spatial varia...

BACKGROUND Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are persistent, bioaccumulative, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals. OBJECTIVES We used handwipes to estimate exposure to PBDEs in house dust among toddlers and examined sex, age, breast-feeding, race, and parents' education as predictors of serum PBDEs. METHODS Eighty-three children from 12 to 36 months of age were enrolled in North Carolin...