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Swiss Aerosol Award 2020: particulate emissions of a business jet and automated pollen measurement

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The 10^th Swiss Aerosol Award has been presented at the annual conference of the Swiss Aerosol Society November 3, 2020 to Dr. Lukas Durdina (EMPA and ZHAW) for his publications on particulate emissions of a business jet and to Eric Sauvageat (Uni Berne) and Yanik Zeder (Swisens AG) for their work on Real-time pollen monitoring using digital holography.

Dr. Lukas Durdina and his Co-authors first reported particulate matter emissions of a business jet aircraft measured according to a new international emissions standard

Business aviation is a relatively small but steadily growing and little investigated emissions source. Regarding emissions, aircraft turbine engines rated below 26.7 kN thrust are certified only for visible smoke and are excluded from the non-volatile particulate matter (nvPM) standard. Emissions data for small engines are lacking. As the demand for air travel surges, fuel burn from commercial aviation is expected to double in 40 the next 15 years. The fleet is even predicted to grow worldwide by 33% in the next 8 years.

Small plane - low emissions?

Despite the small aircraft size and relatively low fuel burn, the nvPM mass emission rates were up to a factor of 3 higher than previously reported for the Boeing 737 engines. We have shown here that a modern business jet may emit as much nvPM from airport operations as an airliner. The comparison with airliners at cruise altitude suggests that nvPM emissions from a business jet flight may be higher than those of an airliner. Expressed as a per-person burden (assuming 180 airliner passengers and 5 business jet passengers), the nvPM mass emissions are higher by a factor of 72 and the nvPM number emissions are higher by a factor of 24.

This study will serve for the development of emission inventories and the results could also be used in the regulatory framework for assessing the emissions certification requirements of small aircraft turbine engines

Durdina, L., Brem, B. T., Schönenberger, D., Siegerist, F., Anet, J. G., & Rindlisbacher, T. (2019). Nonvolatile Particulate Matter Emissions of a Business Jet Measured at Ground Level and Estimated for Cruising Altitudes. Environmental Science and Technology, 53(21), 12865–12872. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b02513

falcon award2020
Sunrise above the Falcon 900 EX with the exhaust sampling probe and instruments in place. Photo: Lukas Durdina.

As new real-time pollen monitoring devices emerge, there is a growing need for processing the large amount of measurement data in an accurate and efficient way. Eric Sauvageat and Yanik Zeder develop and validate a new algorithm to classify real-time particle measurements taken by the “Swisens Poleno”. This instrument is currently the only operational pollen monitoring device using digital holography.

To identify and classify the pollen particles measured by the Poleno, the holographic images are first used to separate pollen candidates from other particles based on their general shape. As a second step a machine learning algorithm was developed and trained by inserting known pollen particles in the device. The resulting dataset is then used on the unknown pollen grains to discriminate between the different taxa. This two-step procedure enabled the system to identify and classify 8 pollen types, whereby 6 of them had accuracies greater than 90%. In addition to the classification ability of the device, the authors also investigated the counting accuracy of the Poleno by performing controlled chamber experiments.

(Sauvageat, E., Zeder, Y., Auderset, K., Calpini, B., Clot, B., Crouzy, B., Konzelmann, T., Lieberherr, G., Tummon, F., and Vasilatou, K.: Real-time pollen monitoring using digital holography, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 1539–1550, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1539-2020, 2020)

Details: Written by Otto Brändli; Parent Category: Swiss Aerosol Award - Schweizer Aerosol Preis; Category: Preisträger; Also available:; Published: 03 November 2020; Created: 02 November 2020; Last Updated: 04 November 2020; Hits: 1086

Jahresbericht Schweizerische Lungenstiftung 2019/2020

Unsere 1988 gegründete Stiftung erfüllt ihren Zweck sowohl in der Schweiz als auch im Ausland, ganz besonders während der aktuellen Corona- Pandemie: durch die Ausbildung von Lungenärzten in Äthiopien und Kirgistan und durch den Kampf gegen Feinstaubpartikel aus Verbrennung und gegen die Coronaviren- Aerosole in der Luft in der Schweiz

East African Training Initiative in Äthiopien

Bisher sind alle mit unseren bisherigen Sponsor Beiträgen ausgebildeten 18 Lungenärzte in Äthiopien geblieben und haben dort wichtige Positionen im dortigen Gesundheitswesen eingenommen: die Leitung der Abteilungen für Innere Medizin und für Lungenkrankheiten im Black-Lion-Universitätsspital in Addis Abeba, die Leitung der Intensivstationen dort für Kinder und Erwachsene sowie die Leitung von weiteren Lungenabteilungen in der Hauptstadt (St. Paul’s Hospital) und in Provinzstädten von Äthiopien (Mekelle und Bahir Dar) und in Rwanda und Tanzania. Auch die äthiopische Lungenorganisation (Äthiopien Thoracic Society) steht unter ihrer Leitung. Eine Liste der vielen Auszeichnungen der Absolventen unseres Ausbildungsprogramms habe ich angefügt.

Unsere Absolventen stehen in regelmässigem Kontakt mit der Columbia Universität in New York (Prof. Neil Schluger) und der Brown Universität in Providence, Rhode Island (Prof. Charles Sherman), meinen Kollegen im Leitungsteam der EATI. Im Berichtsjahr hat Swiss Lung vier Lungenfunktionsmessinstrumente und einen Fellows Award finanziert und bereitet den Ankauf von Schutzmaterial für die Mitarbeitenden in den COVID-Isolationsstationen vor. Die Hauptlast der weiteren Finanzierung liegt jetzt allerdings bei der Organisation Vital Strategies, dem Zusammenschluss der World Lung Fundation von Bloomberg und der IUATLD, der internationalen Lungenorganisation in Nordamerika.

Lung Health in Kirgistan

Für weitere Projekte zur Bekämpfung von Lungenkrankheiten in Kirgistan haben wir erfreulicherweise von der Löwenstein Medical Schweiz AG einen grösseren Betrag erhalten.

Swiss Aerosol Award 2018

Diese Jahr ging der Preis an Frau Dr. Giulia Stefenelli, PhD der ETH Zürich und Mitarbeiterin des Paul Scherrer Instituts in Würenlingen, für ihre Arbeit über Luftschadstoffe bei der Verbrennung von Biomasse, einem weltweit dringenden Gesundheits- und Klimaproblem. Die Verbrennung von Biomasse wie von Holz und anderen organischen Stoffen pflanzlichen oder tierischen Ursprungs zum Kochen und Heizen ist eine der wichtigsten Ursachen der Luftverschmutzung weltweit. Ihre Arbeit liefert wichtige Hilfsmittel und Informationen, um die relevanten Emissionen an der Quelle zu kontrollieren und um die Notwendigkeit der Emissionsreduktionen.

Ewald Weibel Förderpreis für Lungenforschung in der Schweiz

Der Ewald Weibel Preis ging 2020 an Frau Prof. Dr. med. Silvia Ulrich, Pneumologin an der Universität Zürich, zum dritten Mal in Folge an eine Frau (und Mutter)!

Für ihre hervorragenden Arbeiten auf dem Gebiet der pulmonalen Hypertonie, insbesondere über die pulmonale Hämodynamik unter körperlicher Belastung und bei Höhenexposition (in Kirgistan!), sowie über die klinischen Effekte der Sauerstofftherapie und weiterer Behandlungen erhielt sie das Preisgeld aus dem von uns mitgestifteten Ewald Weibel Fonds der Universität Bern.

Weitere Unterstützungen

Der uns von seiner Präsentation vor 2 Jahren bekannte Thoraxchirurg Prof. Ilhan Inci vom Universitätsspital Zürich erhielt für die Weiterführung seiner Arbeit zur längeren „Aufbewahrung“ von Spenderlungen vor der Transplantation einen Beitrag. Dank einer neu zu konstruierenden kleinen Unterdruckkammer für Versuchstierlungen, soll es möglich sein, diese statt nur wie bisher etwa 6, in seinem Labor 12 Std überlebensfähig zu erhalten.

Anirban Sinha PhD, ein Mitarbeiter von Prof Urs Frey von der Universität Basel, erhielt einen Beitrag zur Weiterführung des von der Lungenliga Schweiz gesponserten aussichtsreichen Projekts zur Voraussage von Verschlechterungen eins Asthma bronchiale durch Messungen in der Ausatemluft.

Für ein Gesuch des Verantwortlichen und Gründers der jährlichen ETH Konferenz über Nanopartikel, Dr. A. Mayer, für ein dringendes Forschungsprojekt , für das auch des BAFU, Bundesamt für Umwelt bereits sfr 50‘000 aus der Umwelttechnologieförderung in Aussicht gestellt hat und das sofort starten könnte, haben wir einen Startbeitrag von SFR 20'000 gesprochen (dieser wurde allerdings erst im Juli 2020 ausbezahlt). Das Ziel dieser Untersuchung ist, auf Basis des schon bestehenden Kabinenfilters der NanocleanAir GmbH ein Filtersystem zu entwickeln, das nebst der Eigenschaft der hocheffizienten Filtration von Nanopartikeln aus der Atemluft wie Russpartikel auch Viren filtert und unschädlich macht, und dieses auch produktionstechnisch soweit zu bringen, dass es noch in diesem Jahr durch Lizenzvergabe in den Markt eingeführt werden kann. Es scheint auch, dass Feinstaubpartikel in der Luft die Verbreitung von Coronaviren zusätzlich begünstigen, weshalb Hotspots für Covid-19 vor allem in Grossstädten wie Wuhan und New York sowie der Region Mailand und in der Schweiz im Tessin liegen! Die Studie mit den von der Lungenliga bereits 2015 geförderten Filtern für die Fahrzeugkabinen könnte sehr wichtig sein, wenn wir nach der LOCK-down Phase wieder in einen «Normalzustand» trotz weiterbestehender Corona-Pandemie durchmachen müssen.

Für ein Buchprojekt des Ernährungswissenschafters der Universität Zürich, Prof. Paolo Suter, über Umweltprobleme in Afrika (und dem Rest der Welt) haben wir einen Betrag von bewilligt. Prof. Suter ist der Direktor des Councils der Nestle Foundation. Ein Beispiel aus dem Projekt: Ein(e) afrikanische(r) Autor/In schreibt eine Kurzgeschichte zum Thema Landaneignung (Landraub, auch bekannt als “Land Grabbing”), ein afrikanischer Forscher präsentiert in für Laien verständlicher Sprache die wissenschaftliche Evidenz. Durch diese “doppelte Verankerung” im Hirn, erwarten wir ein besseres Verständnis und auch einen besseren Bewusstwerdungsprozess für diese wichtigen Themen weltweit.

Von der Carl und Mathilde-Thiel-Stiftung in Küsnacht ZH haben wir erfreulicherweise erneut einen Beitrag zur freien Verfügung erhalten.

Jahresbericht: Jahresbericht-Schweizerische-Lungenstiftung-2020.pdf566.44 KB herunterladen:

Details: Written by Otto Brändli; Category: Stiftung; Published: 25 October 2020; Created: 25 October 2020; Last Updated: 25 October 2020; Hits: 2842

SwissTBAward summary 2020

Every year, the Swiss Foundation for Tuberculosis Research awards the Swiss TB Award for outstanding work by Swiss researchers.
The two winners this year are Nina T. Odermatt from the EPFL Lausanne and Tobias Broger from the Swiss non-profit organisation FIND.

Tobias Broger MSc FIND, Genfeva Switzerland
Nina T. Odermatt Ph D

Tobias Broger MSc FIND, Genfeva Switzerland

New generation urine test improves TB diagnosis in people living with HIV

SwissTB Summary2020 TobiasBrogerMSc

The Fujifilm SILVAMP TB LAM test, or FujiLAM, is the first of a new generation of rapid diagnostic tests for the identification of TB in people co-infected with HIV. Working in a similar way to a pregnancy test, FujiLAM detects low concentrations of lipoarabinomannan (LAM) in the urine of people with TB and HIV co-infection. Urine samples are easy to collect from people of all ages, which is especially relevant for those with HIV who may often face difficulties in producing sputum (the usual sample needed for TB tests). FujiLAM has shown promise following an encouraging diagnostic accuracy evaluation using biobanked (frozen) urine samples from hospitalized patients with HIV, and these findings were presented in a study published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases. The study found that the test is substantially (28%) more effective at identifying TB in people who are HIV positive than the only existing alternative urine test. Rapid and accurate diagnosis of TB is critical to enable patients to start treatment on time, reduce deaths due to TB, and prevent further transmission of the disease. The test is now being evaluated in large studies in more than ten countries, which will help to generate the data needed for evaluation by the World Health Organization (WHO).
SILVAMP TB LAM was developed by a FIND-led international R&D consortium including Fujifilm, Rutgers University, the University of Alberta, Otsuka and the University of Cape Town, supported by the Global Health Innovation Technology Fund (GHIT), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the governments of Germany, the Netherlands, UK and Australia.

Broger T, Sossen B, du Toit E, Kerkhoff AD, Schutz C, Ivanova Reipold E, Ward A, Barr DA, Macé A, Trollip A, Burton R, Ongarello S, Pinter A, Lowary TL, Boehme C, Nicol MP, Meintjes G, Denkinger CM. Novel lipoarabinomannan point-of-care tuberculosis test for people with HIV: a diagnostic accuracy study. Lancet Infect Dis 2019;19:852–861. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(19)30001-5.

Broger T, Sossen B, du Toit E, Kerkhoff AD, Schutz C, Ivanova Reipold E, Ward A, Barr DA, Macé A, Trollip A, Burton R, Ongarello S, Pinter A, Lowary TL, Boehme C, Nicol MP, Meintjes G, Denkinger CM. Novel lipoarabinomannan point-of-care tuberculosis test for people with HIV: a diagnostic accuracy study. Lancet Infect Dis. 2019;19: 852–861. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(19)30001-5

Nina T. Odermatt Ph D

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Global Health Institute, Station 19, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) has specifically adapted to a lifestyle inside its host cell to remain undetected by the immune system for many years. The exact timing of host-cell entry, dormancy, internal cell division and therefore virulence is crucial for Mtb’s success. An important part thereof is the tight regulation of gene expression, mediated by transcription factors.
Here, we investigated one of these transcription factors, the mycobacterial Integration Host Factor (mIHF). We found that the mIHF protein was present throughout the cycle and was very stable inside the bacterial cell. mIHF was essential for the survival of the pathogen, as Mtb without mIHF could not grow anymore.

Mtb cells with a very low concentration of mIHF showed an aberrant phenotype of elongated cells twice the length as normal, which were not able to divide or form a septum. This protein further bound over 150 times to the DNA, often close to another transcription factor, EspR. While most transcription factors regulate less than ten genes, mIHF strongly affected expression of more than 200 genes, which equals about 5% of all genes in Mtb.

Many of these target genes are part of the DNA synthesis machinery, code for tRNAs important in protein synthesis, or are part of virulence pathways. Strikingly, the genes espACD were the most downregulated ones, themselves important for Mtb’s special secretion system and its high virulence. Overall, the characterization of mIHF added an important piece towards deciphering the complex gene regulatory mechanisms in Mtb.

NinaT.Odermatt, Claudia Sala, Andrej Benjak & StewartT. Cole
Essential Nucleoid Associated Protein mIHF (Rv1388) Controls Virulence and Housekeeping Genes
in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Nature Scientific Reports 8, 1–14 (2018) DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-32340-2

NinaT.Odermatt, Claudia Sala, Andrej Benjak & StewartT. Cole

Essential Nucleoid Associated Protein mIHF (Rv1388) Controls Virulence and Housekeeping Genes

in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Nature Scientific Reports 8, 1–14 (2018) DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-32340-2

Details: Written by Otto Brändli; Category: News; Also available:; Published: 26 March 2020; Created: 27 February 2020; Last Updated: 06 November 2020; Hits: 2614

Swiss Aerosol Award 2019: emissions with a special focus on biomass burning

Press relase: Download: SwissAerosolAward-2019_Giulia-Stefenelli.pdf58.7 kB

Dr. Giulia Stefenelli, PhD of ETH Zürich and researcher at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Würenlingen, has received yesterday in Berne the Swiss Aerosol Award 2019 for her excellent work about biomass burning*.

Giulia Stefenelli and coauthors present herein a new method to model the secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation from complex emissions with a special focus on biomass burning. Biomass burning emissions from residential combustion are a major source of gaseous and particulate air pollution on urban, regional and global scales.

Here, using smog chamber measurements, the authors estimate the contribution of different precursor classes to the SOA formed during emission aging. They demonstrate that SOA yields of these precursor classes in complex emissions can largely be represented by yields determined using single precursors. For SOA yield calculations, they developed a new box model solved using advanced data science techniques.

This modelling framework may be generalizable for other complex emissions sources, enabling the determination of the contributions of different chemical classes at a level of complexity suitable for implementation in regional air quality models. The authors reveal the most important precursors in biomass burning emissions, and the modelling framework developed can be used to follow the evolution of their oxidation products in the particle phase, allowing a direct comparison with molecular composition measurements using recently developed chemical ionization mass spectrometers.

SOA production by most of these precursors has received little study so far; therefore, data analysis methods developed here suggest directions for future laboratory studies and a clear path for constraining SOA effects and supporting source specific mitigation policies.

*Secondary organic aerosol formation from smoldering and flaming combustion of biomass: a box model parametrization based on volatility basis set.

Giulia Stefenelli, Jianhui Jiang, Amelie Bertrand, Emily A. Bruns, Simone M. Pieber, Urs Baltensperger et al; Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 11461–11484, 2019; https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-11461-2019

Details: Written by Otto Brändli; Parent Category: Swiss Aerosol Award - Schweizer Aerosol Preis; Category: Preisträger; Also available:; Published: 11 November 2019; Created: 11 November 2019; Last Updated: 04 November 2020; Hits: 2502

Swiss Lung supports pollen allergy project and app

Press release: Ally-Science_2019_PRESS_RELEASE_20190430.pdf123.46 kB

Real-time data on pollen exposure is available for the first time in Switzerland. This is gathered on the Ally Science app, which has already found widespread use among allergy sufferers.

The already commonly used Ally Science app provides those who suffer from allergies with not only information on pollen exposure, but also now a symptom development report and a more precise symptom survey. As another recent addition, users can also now view the pollen concentration in Biel and Lucerne in real time. Other regions are due to be added.

The Ally Science app was launched in April 2018 by the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH) and University Hospital Zurich (USZ) to serve as the core component in Switzerland’s largest ever study into pollen. The app now features brand new functions. The most significant addition has been made possible by the Poleno – a measuring device from Lucerne-based start-up Swisens. It detects the current concentration of pollen in the air of the local surroundings, focusing specifically on the types of pollen most relevant to allergy sufferers. This represents a major breakthrough: The measuring method that had been used until now is based around identifying and counting pollen manually.

Consequently, it takes a couple of days before the measurement results are available.

The Ally Science app shows how much pollen and which types of pollen are currently in the air – initially for the cities of Biel and Lucerne, where a Poleno unit has been installed. Based on the tests so far, Swisens CEO Erny Niederberger is confident "that the devices will deliver high-quality real-time data." The data can be viewed on the app in the form of a map. It also shows the regions in which app users are currently registering symptoms, which can be done quickly and easily by swiping into the app's allergy diary. To allow for a more detailed analysis of symptoms, users are now asked to specify whether their allergy symptoms were experienced indoors or outdoors. Allergy sufferers can use the map to decide whether or not they wish to take preventative measures.

Another useful new feature of the app is a symptom development report for users, which can be exported as a PDF if required for a medical appointment. There is also a development display so users can track their symptoms across the entire year. Users who had been entering data into the app in 2018 will see a second curve indicating last year's pattern. This is hugely valuable for a potential medical consultation, particularly with reference to recommending treatment. Further to this, a link takes users straight to tips for pollen allergy sufferers found on the app from the aha! Swiss Allergy Centre.

Plans for 2020 include offering real-time pollen data for more regions, as well as a personalised pollen early warning indicator. Another reason to start using the Ally

Science app now. After all, the more allergy sufferers record their symptoms regularly, "the more detailed findings can be fed into the early warning system," explains Professor Serge Bignens, Head of the BFH Institute for Medical Informatics.

Ally Science – Pollen study conducted with and in the interest of allergy sufferers The Swiss Ally Science study project is reliant on the involvement of people with allergies. They can record their symptoms using the Ally Science app, which is available in five languages. The data is stored on the secure, user-specific MIDATA platform and incorporated into the pollen study in anonymised form. Around 8000 people contributed more than 24,000 symptom entries during the 2018 pollen season, including information on the frequency of individual symptoms. In the second phase of the project, which is now under way, the inclusion of real-time pollen data facilitates the analysis of links between symptoms recorded and the pollen actually present. The aim of the study is to develop pollen early warning systems and to improve advice and treatment.

For more information and photographs or to download the Ally Science app, visit:

www.allyscience.ch

Contacts for questions and interviews:

Ally Science app and MIDATA platform: Professor Serge Bignens, Institute for Medical Informatics I4MI, Bern University of Applied Sciences BFH, Biel, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , T +41 (0) 32 321 67 01

Allergy study: Professor Peter Schmid-Grendelmeier, Allergy Station, Dermatology Clinic, Zurich University Hospital, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , T +41 (0) 44 255 86 20

Real-time pollen measurement: Erny Niederberger, Swisens AG, Lucerne, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , T +41 (0) 79 761 97 34

Ally Science is made possible by the support of the following project partners:

aha! Swiss Allergy Centre , the independent foundation for people with allergic disorders, Bern
SWISS LUNG , Swiss Lung Foundation
Climate control specialist Dyson in Zurich, industry partner
ETH Zurich
University Hospital Zurich Foundation
vitagate.ch
City of Lucerne

Details: Written by Otto Brändli; Category: News; Also available:; Published: 30 April 2019; Created: 29 April 2019; Last Updated: 30 April 2019; Hits: 4008

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