Occupational dust and chemical exposures and the development of autoimmune rheumatic diseases
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Anthropogenic sulfate-climate interactions suppress dust activity over East Asia
Observational evidences indicate a significant decline in dust storm frequencies over the East Asian arid-semiarid region during recent decades, which creates a strong contrast with a great increase in sulfate emissions over monsoonal Asia. However, the causes for decline of dust activities are still controversial. Through conducting a set of idealized sensitivity experiments of regional aerosol perturbations, here we show that anthropogenic sulfate aerosols over monsoonal Asia remarkably suppress the regional dust activities over East Asia. Southward shift of Asian westerly jet stream induced by sulfate aerosols results in increasing precipitation and weakening surface wind speeds over the arid-semiarid region, thereby suppressing local dust emission fluxes. Further, the latest Sixth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project simulations indicate that anthropogenic aerosols partly drive the recent weakening in regional dust activities and that future change of regional dust activities will likely depend on emissions scenarios of Asian anthropogenic aerosols and greenhouse gases.
Mass and particle size distribution of household dust on children’s hands
Children are vulnerable to household dust exposure; however, to date, a handful of studies simultaneously report both the mass and particle size of household dust found on children’s hands after natural indoor play activities.
Associations between common genetic variants and income provide insights about the socio-economic health gradient
We conducted a genome-wide association study on income among individuals of European descent (N = 668,288) to investigate the relationship between socio-economic status and health disparities. We identified 162 genomic loci associated with a common genetic factor underlying various income measures, all with small effect sizes (the Income Factor). Our polygenic index captures 1–5% of income variance, with only one fourth due to direct genetic effects. A phenome-wide association study using this index showed reduced risks for diseases including hypertension, obesity, type 2 diabetes, depression, asthma and back pain. The Income Factor had a substantial genetic correlation (0.92, s.e. = 0.006) with educational attainment. Accounting for the genetic overlap of educational attainment with income revealed that the remaining genetic signal was linked to better mental health but reduced physical health and increased risky behaviours such as drinking and smoking. These findings highlight the complex genetic influences on income and health.
Environmental public health research at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: A blueprint for exposure science in a connected world
Exposure science plays an essential role in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (U.S. EPA) mission to protect human health and the environment. The U.S. EPA’s Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA) within the Office of Research and Development (ORD) provides the exposure science needed to characterize the multifaceted relationships between people and their surroundings in support of national, regional, local and individual-level actions. Furthermore, exposure science research must position its enterprise to tackle the most pressing public health challenges in an ever-changing environment. These challenges include understanding and confronting complex human disease etiologies, disparities in the social environment, and system-level changes in the physical environment. Solutions will sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals, and ecosystems. Our objectives for this paper are to review the role of CPHEA exposure science research in various recent decision-making contexts, to present current challenges facing U.S. EPA and the larger exposure science field, and to provide illustrative case examples where CPHEA exposure science is demonstrating the latest methodologies at the intersection of these two motivations. This blueprint provides a foundation for applying exposomic tools and approaches to holistically understand real-world exposures so optimal environmental public health protective actions can be realized within the broader context of a One Health framework.
Observationally derived magnetic field strength and 3D components in the HD 142527 disk
The magnetic fields in protoplanetary disks around young stars play an important role in disk evolution and planet formation. Measuring the polarized thermal emission from magnetically aligned grains is a reliable method for tracing magnetic fields. However, it has been difficult to observe magnetic fields from dust polarization in protoplanetary disks because other polarization mechanisms involving grown dust grains become efficient. Here we report multi-wavelength (0.87, 1.3, 2.1 and 2.7 mm) observations of polarized thermal emission in the protoplanetary disk around HD 142527, which shows a lopsided dust distribution. We revealed that smaller dust particles still exhibit magnetic alignment in the southern part of the disk. Furthermore, angular offsets between the observed magnetic field and the disk azimuthal direction were discovered. These offsets can be used to measure the relative strengths of each component of a three-dimensional magnetic field (radial (Br), azimuthal (Bϕ) and vertical (Bz)). Applying this method, we derived the magnetic field around a 200 au radius from the protostar as ∣Br∣:∣Bϕ∣:∣Bz∣ ≈ 0.26:1:0.23 with a strength of ~0.3 mG. Our observations provide some key parameters of magnetic activities, including the plasma beta, which has had to be assumed in theoretical studies. In addition, the radial and vertical angular momentum transfers were found to be comparable, which poses a challenge to theoretical studies of protoplanetary disks.
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