Aerobiologia

The objective of this study was to evaluate thefungal concentrations within carpets of the same typeand manufacture during their first 2 years of life.The carpets tested came from several different branchoffices of a bank.A total of 60 dust samples from 20 carpets (3samples per carpet) was analysed. The age of thecarpets varied from 50 to 666 days. Analysis of therelationship

The composition of fungal biota and air quality of five traditional subterranean wine cellars and one store building of a modern wine production facility were examined in the Tokaj wine region (northeastern Hungary). Air samples were collected with SAS IAQ sampler onto PDA, MEA and RBA. Strains representing morphotypes were isolated from colonies formed on agar plates from either air or surface samples. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the rRNA gene cluster was amplified with primers ITS1 and ITS4. Altogether 90 morphotypes were isolated, 48 and 12 strains (43 species) from the air and surfaces, respectively. The number of spore-forming species generated high diversity of indoor fungi and differences between the cellars’ fungal compositions; however, their dominant species were proved to be the same. Among the isolated strains Penicillium spp. were the most frequent. The walls of cellars were covered by colonies of Zasmidium (Cladosporium) cellare often referred to as a noble mold. Even so, this mold has been found only at a small concentration in the air samples (10–30 CFU/m3). The walls of the modern store were free of molds. Diversity of fungi of the examined wine cellars was influenced by environmental conditions to a certain degree, such as elevation (height above sea level), age, reconstruction time of cellars, indoor ethanol concentration and the number of chimneys. The location of cellars poorly influenced the concentration of fungi of the air inside cellars, contrary to outdoors where the air of the municipal area contained more CFUs than that of rural spaces.

The behaviour of bioaerosol particles in industrial and health-careapplications may be most effectively understood once they have beenquantitatively assessed using well-characterised sampling and assaytechniques. However, the large number of different conditions possiblein this wide range of applications makes the assessment of bioaerosolparticles very difficult. In addition to the effects of differentsampling and assay technologies, the mechanism of aerosolisation andenvironmental conditions

The pollination period and pollen concentrationof olive trees (Oleaeuropea L.) and olive production were analysedfor Prato and Florenceusing a data set of 8 years (1991–1998).Meteorological data have been usedto obtain information about weather conditionsduring vegetative seasonsand correlations were found both for thephenology and yield. The results showed that air temperatureprevious to the onset of floweringis of great importance in determining thereproductive cycle of olive treebut the chill period in January and Februaryshould also be considered.Olive pollen collected during thepollination period was positivelycorrelated with the production level for bothsites. Weather conditionfollowing pollination were also taken intoaccount for a better assessmentof the final yield.

ABSTRACT Important sources of chemical and biological indoor pollutants include outdoor air, the human body and human activities, emission from materials, furnishings, appliances and use of commodities. The main purpose of this study was to identify culturable indoor airborne bacteria in normal and dust event days in indoor environments of a school, a hospital and a university in Ahvaz city, which individuals such as children, teenagers, adolescences and old people had activity there. Samples were collected using the biostage sampler, an Andersen-based method, with a flow rate of 28.3 l/min, from July 2010 to March 2011. Temperature and humidity were measured and registered in each time of sampling. The identification of bacteria was performed to genus level by using appropriate methods and standard biochemical tests. Gram-positive bacteria in both normal and dust event days with more than 90 % had the highest concentration and frequency. Predominant bacteria in normal and dust event days were Staphylococcus spp. (72.9, 87.9 %), Streptomyces spp. (60.9, 62.1 %), Bacillus spp. (94, 89 %) and Micrococcus spp. (65.4, 71.2 %), respectively. The highest concentrations of bacteria in normal and dust event days were in winter. The range of bacteria in normal and dust event days were 0–4,800 and 210–10,000 cfu/m3, respectively. There was a significant difference between the concentration of bacteria in normal and dust event days (p = 0.001) and also a significant association was found between the concentration of total bacteria with temperature and humidity (p\0.05). The concentration of bacteria in dust event days was 1.8 times higher than normal days. Consequently, the concentrations of bacteria in all three sampling sites were higher in dust event days than normal days indicating the impact of dust storms on increased bacterial concentration in indoor environment.

Ragweed pollen, which is a major cause of allergic rhinitis in North America and during the last decades, also in parts of the European continent, has not been regarded as a risk in Sweden, since occurrences of Ambrosia have been rare and with two exceptions, ephemeral. During the last four years, however, long-distance transported pollen has been registered in South Sweden. Moreover, seeds are dispersed by man with birdseed and reports on ragweed plants growing at birdtables are becoming more and more common. In warm years, the fruits of these plants mature and are germinative. We argue that there is a risk that ragweed pollen may be a problem in the future in Sweden. Long-distance transport from the continent is likely to be increasingly more common, and in larger amounts, as ragweed is rapidly spreading in Europe. Among the plants now appearing within Sweden, selection is likely to favour phenotypes which are able to fulfil their life-cycle during the indigenous vegetation period...

Aerobiologia 15: 311–315, 1999. © 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. ... Entomophilous pollen incidence with reference to atmospheric dispersal in eastern India ... Ashoke Bhattacharya, Subrata Mondal & Sudhendu Mandal

The analysis of profilin Ole e 2 concentration and its relationship with pollen concentration was carried out in the atmosphere of León (located in north-western of Spain) during 3 years. Moreover, we have studied the influence of some atmospheric pollutants and climatic parameters using Spearman rank correlation and principal components analysis. As a result, the presence in the atmosphere of Ole e 2 is demonstrated. We can observe that in April and until mid-May, the peaks of Ole e 2 correspond to the high concentrations of pollen from various tree plants, such as Quercus, Populus, Betula, Cupressaceae. From this date until the middle of June, where the presence of this profilin begins to be scarce in the air, the concentration of Ole e 2 is linked to herbaceous plants: Rumex, Plantago and species of the family Poaceae. Statistical analysis showed that the factors of temperature get influenced the most in the presence of Ole e 2 in the atmosphere, followed by the relative humidity and precipitation. In our study, there was no clear correlation with atmospheric pollutants; however, an increase in NO2 and SO2 causes a decrease in profilin in the atmosphere.

The ability of an image analysis routine to differentiate between spores of eleven allergenic fungal genera was tested using analysis based on seven basic and up to 17 more complex features, extracted from digitised images. Fungal spores of Alternaria, Cladosporium, Fusarium, Aspergillus, Penicillium, Botrytis, Epicoccum, Exserohilum, Ustilago, Coprinus and Psilocybe were examined in a series of experiments designed to differentiate between spores at the genus and species level. Linear and Quadratic Discriminant Analysis of feature measurements, recorded for 100 to 1600 spores per taxon, differentiated between genera and species with a high level of accuracy. Genus comparisons using only seven basic features resulted in 98% accuracy for the recognition of conidia belonging to Cladosporium, Fusarium and Epicoccum. Differentiation between conidia of Aspergillus and Penicillium was the least reliable, with 56% of Aspergillus conidia correctly identified and 41% misidentified as Penicil...

The goal of this study was to compare hazel pollen seasons in Sosnowiec in 1997–2019 and to analyse the impact of weather conditions on these seasons. The measurements were conducted using a volumetric method with a Burkard spore trap. The duration of pollen seasons was determined using the 98% method. SPI (Seasonal Pollen Index) was calculated as the sum of daily pollen concentrations in a given season. The measurements showed that high temperatures in January and February had an impact on the beginning of the hazel pollen season. They revealed that there are positive correlations with temperatures and sunshine hours long before the season, i.e. 210–180 days before. The daily hazel pollen concentration in Sosnowiec showed a positive and statistically significant correlation with air temperature, sunshine hours, and average and maximum wind speed. Negative correlation was demonstrated for snow cover depth and relative humidity of the air. Daily concentration levels depend also on th...

Prevalence of different species of Penicillium and their concentrations per cubic meter of air were evaluated with the use of Hi-Air sampler system Mark II (Hi-Media Laboratories Ltd., India) in the air of homes (bed-rooms) at four different sites in Nagpur. At each of these sites, air sampling was done fortnightly in triplicate for 2 years duration from June 2000 to May 2002. The sampling was also done in triplicate for the outdoor air in the vicinity of each home on the same day immediately after the indoor sampling was over. The mean concentration of Penicillium colony forming units at four different sites in the indoor air was 32, 46.9, 35 and 35.4 CFU/m3, respectively, whereas in the outdoor air at these same four sites, the mean concentration was 24, 28, 25 and 25.8 CFU/m3 respectively. The Penicillium concentration in the indoor air was found to be higher in winter than in other seasons (ANOVA, p Penicillium spp. in intramural environment was always higher than that in extramural environment. Statistically significant difference existed between intramural and extramural environments at all the sites, with maximum difference at a site, which is old crowded area of the city. During the 2-years investigations, 11 species of Penicillium were isolated from the indoor air while nine species were isolated from the air outside the homes. The dominant species of Penicillium in indoor as well as outdoor air were P. citrinum (33.78 and 32.81), P. oxalicum (19.70 and 22.60), and P. chrysogenum (17.64 and 14.50). The percentage of the Penicillium in the indoor air was 10.70 while it was 8.36 in outdoor air. Indoor air showed the presence of P. glaber and P. sclerotiorum, which were absent in the outdoor air.

The airborne dispersal of the anamorphs of the Gibberella fujikuroi species complex was studied under pre- and postharvest maize (corn) production conditions using a 3-stage Andersen sampler. The aim of this study was to identify and analyse the size distribution of such species in air samples. Differences were observed between the concentration of large- and small-sized propagules (identified as aggregates

Pampa Chakraborty1, Sudhiranjan Gupta2, Swati Gupta-Bhattacharya1 & Sunirmal Chanda1∗ 1Division of Palynology and Environmental Biology, Department of Botany, Bose Institute, 93/1 Acharya PC Road, Calcutta – 700 009, India; 2Department of Botany, Bose ...