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Vegetative leaf area is a critical input to models that simulate human and ecosystem exposure to atmospheric pollutants. Leaf area index (LAI) can be measured in the field or numerically simulated, but all contain some inherent uncertainty that is passed to the exposure assessmen...

Recent studies showed that the circulating stress hormones, epinephrine and corticosterone/cortisol, are involved in mediating ozone-induced pulmonary effects through the activation of the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axes. Hence, w...

Objective: Exposure to mobile source emissions is nearly ubiquitous in developed nations, and is associated with multiple adverse health outcomes. There is an ongoing need to understand the specificity of traffic exposure associations with vascular outcomes, particularly in indi...

Several models were used to describe the partitioning of ammonia, water, and organic compounds between the gas and particle phases for conditions in the southeastern US during summer 2013. Existing equilibrium models and frameworks were found to be sufficient, although additional...

A next generation air quality modeling system is being developed at the U.S. EPA to enable modeling of air quality from global to regional to (eventually) local scales. We envision that the system will have three configurations: 1. Global meteorology with seamless mesh refinemen...

Background: Excessive exposure to manganese (Mn) may cause parkinsonian-like motor and tremor symptoms and adverse cognitive effects, including problems with executive functioning (EF), resembling those found in later-stage Parkinson’s disease (PD). Studies seeking to diff...

Nano-fillers are increasingly incorporated into polymeric materials to improve the mechanical, barrier or other matrix properties of nanocomposites used for consumer and industrial applications. However, over the life cycle, these nanocomposites could degrade due to exposure to...

Traffic emissions are associated with the elevation of health risks of people living close to highways. Roadside vegetation barriers have the potential of reducing these risks by decreasing near-road air pollution concentrations. However, while we understand the mechanisms that d...

The representation of land use and land cover (hereby referred to as “LU”) is a challenging aspect of dynamically downscaled simulations, as a mesoscale model that is utilized as a regional climate model (RCM) may be limited in its ability to represent LU over multi-d...

Inland ports are vulnerable to damage or disruptions from extreme high and low water levels. Extreme water levels can cause periods of flooding or drought and may restrict or alter port operations and freight movement. Those vulnerabilities affect not only the port itself, but al...

Climate-change driven increases in water temperature pose multiple challenges for aquatic organisms. Predictions of climate change impacts to biota typically do not account for fine-grained spatiotemporal patterns of stream networks; yet patches of cooler water within rivers c...

In the 1990’s, the proposed use of methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl (MMT) as an octane-enhancing gasoline fuel additive led to concerns for potential public health consequences from exposure to manganese (Mn) combustion products in automotive exhaust. After a series ...

Understanding the sorption mechanisms for organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) on impervious surfaces is important if we are to improve our understanding of the fate and transport of OPFRs in indoor environments. Traditional Langmuir and Freundlich models are widely adopted t...

Aviation is a unique anthropogenic source with four-dimensional varying emissions, peaking at cruise altitudes (9–12 km). Aircraft emission budgets in the upper troposphere lower stratosphere region and their potential impacts on upper troposphere and surface air quality ar...

Several low-volume inlets (flow rates ≤ 16.7 liters per minute (Lpm)) are commercially available as components of low-cost, portable ambient particulate matter samplers. Because the inlets themselves do not contain internal fractionators, they are often assumed to representativel...

The emergence of small, portable, low-cost air sensors has encouraged a shift from traditional monitoring approaches for air quality. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), in collaboration with the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s (SCAQMD) Air Quality ...

The Journal of Breath Research has now reached its 10th anniversary of publication. From the general public’s perspective, breath analysis had always revolved around drinking and driving, and to some lesser extent pulmonary function testing of athletes. However, at the ince...

Introduction: Wildland fires degrade regional air quality and adversely affect human health. A growing body of epidemiology literature report increased rates of emergency department, hospital admission and premature deaths from wildfire smoke exposure. Objective: Our research a...

The oceans are the main source of natural halogen and sulfur compounds, which have a significant influence on the oxidizing capacity of the marine atmosphere; however, their impact on the air quality of coastal cities is currently unknown. We explore the effect of marine halogens...

Background, studies have linked exposure to ultrafine particulate matter (PM) and adverse cardiovascular events. PM-induced oxidative stress is believed to be a key mechanism of adverse vascular effects. Advanced age is one factor known to decrease anti-oxidant defense and conf...

The Village Green Project is a community-based activity to demonstrate the capabilities of new real-time monitoring technology for residents and citizen scientists to learn about local air quality. The goal of the project is to provide the public and communities with information ...

This course will introduce students to the fundamental principles of water system adaptation to hydrological changes, with emphasis on data analysis and interpretation, technical planning, and computational modeling. Starting with real-world scenarios and adaptation needs, the co...

The ACP Special Issue is being organized to draw together analysis of a set of cooperative modeling experiments (referred to as HTAP2). The purpose of this technical note is to provide a common description of the experimental design and set up for HTAP2 that can be referred to b...

The U.S. EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) has developed a 3-D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the human respiratory system that allows for the simulation of particulate based contaminant deposition and clearance, while being adaptable for age, ethnicity,...

On May 8, 2017, the NCA4 Air Quality chapter team held a public engagement webinar. The objectives of the webinar were to gather input from stakeholders, including authors of the regional chapters, to help inform the writing and development of NCA4, and to raise awareness of the ...