Levels, Sources, and Health Damage of Dust in Grain Transportation and Storage: A Case Study of Chinese Grain Storage Companies

A large amount of mixed dust exists in grain, which can easily stimulate the respiratory system and cause diseases. This study explored contamination levels and health effects of this grain dust. A total of 616 dust samples from different stages and types of grain were collected in China—in Hefei (Anhui), Shenzhen (Guangdong), Chengdu (Sichuan), Changchun (Jilin), and Shunyi (Beijing)—and analyzed using the filter membrane method and a laser particle size analyzer. A probabilistic risk assessment model was developed to explore the health effects of grain dust on workers in the grain storage industry based on the United States Environmental Protection Agency risk assessment model and the Monte Carlo simulation method. Sensitivity analysis methods were used to analyze the various exposure parameters and influencing factors that affect the health risk assessment results. This assessment model was applied to translate health risks into disability-adjusted life years (DALY). The results revealed that the concentration of dust ranged from 25 to 70 mg/m3, which followed normal distribution and the proportion of dust with a particle size of less than 10 μm exceeded 10%. Workers in the transporting stage were exposed to the largest health risk, which followed a lognormal distribution. The average health risks for workers in the entering and exiting zones were slightly below 2.5 × 10−5. The sensitivity analysis indicated that average time, exposure duration, inhalation rate, and dust concentration made great contributions to dust health risk. Workers in the grain storage and transportation stage had the health damage, and the average DALY exceeded 0.4 years.

MODELING AND OPTIMIZATION OF THE PROCESS OF AIR PURIFICATION FROM GRAIN DUST BY MEANS OF COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS

The article is dedicated to the development of generalized methods of calculation, modeling and optimization of the cyclones’ parameters that are used to clean the air from the grain dust. The basis of the developed methods is the usage of computational hydraulic gas dynamics, in particular the SOLIDWORKS software package and the integrated CFD-package SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation, as well as the principles of theory of similarity and dimensions. The deposition efficiency coefficient was chosen as the optimization criterion that can be calculated as the ratio of the mass of deposited particles to the total mass of grain dust particles entering the working volume of the cyclone. By means of SOLIDWORKS, a parametrized solid model of cyclone with the necessary elements of adaptation for further study of gas-dynamic processes was created. The dependence of the deposition efficiency on various parameters that can be optimized, in particular, on the pressure at the inlet and outlet nozzles of the cyclone was studied; volumetric flow rate of air to be purified; design dimensions of the working chamber of the cyclone etc. The usage of the simulation methods allowed to obtain an extended database of optimization parameters and values of the objective function that correspond to them. The generalization of the obtained data set in the form of dimensionless criteria was enabled by the analysis of the dimensions of the quantities that affect the deposition efficiency. Using the basics of similarity theory, the type of functional dependence between similarity criteria was established. The constant parameters of the mentioned power function are determined using a two-dimensional approximation using a software package for mathematical calculations – Mathcad 15. The obtained mathematical model allows to select the optimal operating modes (volumetric air flow, inlet and outlet pressures of cyclone etc.) depending on the design and the size of the cyclone that allows to maximize the efficiency of grain dust deposition.

The airborne mycobiome and associations with mycotoxins and inflammatory markers in the Norwegian grain industry

Grain dust exposure is associated with respiratory symptoms among grain industry workers. However, the fungal assemblage that contribute to airborne grain dust has been poorly studied. We characterized the airborne fungal diversity at industrial grain- and animal feed mills, and identified differences in diversity, taxonomic compositions and community structural patterns between seasons and climatic zones. The fungal communities displayed strong variation between seasons and climatic zones, with 46% and 21% of OTUs shared between different seasons and climatic zones, respectively. The highest species richness was observed in the humid continental climate of the southeastern Norway, followed by the continental subarctic climate of the eastern inland with dryer, short summers and snowy winters, and the central coastal Norway with short growth season and lower temperature. The richness did not vary between seasons. The fungal diversity correlated with some specific mycotoxins in settled dust and with fibrinogen in the blood of exposed workers, but not with the personal exposure measurements of dust, glucans or spore counts. The study contributes to a better understanding of fungal exposures in the grain and animal feed industry. The differences in diversity suggest that the potential health effects of fungal inhalation may also be different.

SN 2014ab: an aspherical Type IIn supernova with low polarization

ABSTRACT We present photometry, spectra, and spectropolarimetry of supernova (SN) 2014ab, obtained through ∼200 d after peak brightness. SN 2014ab was a luminous Type IIn SN (MV < −19.14 mag) discovered after peak brightness near the nucleus of its host galaxy, VV 306c. Pre-discovery upper limits constrain the time of explosion to within 200 d prior to discovery. While SN 2014ab declined by ∼1 mag over the course of our observations, the observed spectrum remained remarkably unchanged. Spectra exhibit an asymmetric emission-line profile with a consistently stronger blueshifted component, suggesting the presence of dust or a lack of symmetry between the far side and near side of the SN. The Pa β emission line shows a profile very similar to that of H α, implying that this stronger blueshifted component is caused either through obscuration by large dust grains, occultation by optically thick material, or a lack of symmetry between the far side and near side of the interaction region. Despite these asymmetric line profiles, our spectropolarimetric data show that SN 2014ab has little detected polarization after accounting for the interstellar polarization. We are likely seeing emission from a photosphere that has only small deviation from circular symmetry in the plane normal to our line of sight, but with either large-grain dust or significant asymmetry in the density of circumstellar material or SN ejecta along our line of sight. We suggest that SN 2014ab and SN 2010jl (as well as other SNe IIn) may be events with similar geometry viewed from different directions.

Distant foreground and the Planck-derived Hubble constant

ABSTRACT It is possible to reduce the discrepancy between the local measurement of the cosmological parameter H0 and the value derived from the Planck measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by considering contamination of the CMB by emission from some medium around distant extragalactic sources, such as extremely cold coarse-grain dust. Though being distant, such a medium would still be in the foreground with respect to the CMB, and, as any other foreground, it would alter the CMB power spectrum. This could contribute to the dispersion of CMB temperature fluctuations. By generating a few random samples of CMB with different dispersions, we have checked that the increased dispersion leads to a smaller estimated value of H0, the rest of the cosmological model parameters remaining fixed. This might explain the reduced value of the Planck-derived parameter H0 with respect to the local measurements. The signature of the distant foreground in the CMB traced by supernovae (SNe) was previously reported by the authors of this paper – we found a correlation between the SN redshifts, zSN, and CMB temperature fluctuations at the SNe locations, TSN. Here we have used the slopes of the regression lines $T_{\rm SN}\, /\, z_{\rm SN}$ corresponding to different Planck wavebands in order to estimate the possible temperature of the distant extragalactic medium, which turns out to be very low, about 5 K. The most likely ingredient of this medium is coarse-grain (grey) dust, which is known to be almost undetectable, except for the effect of dimming remote extragalactic sources.