Aerosol

Geoengineering may slow Greenland ice sheet loss

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, January 30, 2024

SAPPORO, Japan, Jan. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- One of the many effects of global warming is sea-level rise due to the melting and retreat of the Earth's ice sheets and glaciers as well as other sources. As the sea level rises, large areas of densely populated coastal land could ultimately become uninhabitable without extensive coastal modification. In order to stave off this possibility, carbon emissions need to reach net negative, a state that is hard to achieve under current circumstances.

Key Points: 
  • Hokkaido University researchers and colleagues show that stratospheric aerosol injection has the potential to reduce ice sheet loss due to climate change.
  • The simulations showed that SAI of sulfur dioxide would have a clear protective effect on the Greenland Ice Sheet.
  • Under RCP8.5, there would be ice loss equivalent to approximately 90 mm sea-level rise; under RCP4.5, ice loss would be approximately 60.6 mm sea-level rise; but under GeoMIP G4, ice loss would be limited to approximately just 37.6 mm sea-level rise.
  • "While this study shows that SAI could contribute to the protection of the Greenland Ice Sheet, and hence, potentially, all other ice cover on Earth, geoengineering is a highly contentious topic," Greve concludes.

RSV, flu and COVID: demystifying the triple epidemic of respiratory viruses

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Since 2022, a triple epidemic of respiratory viruses — RSV, influenza and SARS-CoV-2 — has been disrupting our daily lives. In addition, the media constantly reminds us of how this is straining emergency departments. How does the present respiratory virus season differ from seasons during the pre-COVID era? As a specialist in virus-host interaction, I would like to shed some light on the new dynamics of the respiratory virus season.The infamous SARS-CoV-2Despite limited access to screening tests, analysis of the number of hospital admissions shows that the virus is still going strong.

Key Points: 


Since 2022, a triple epidemic of respiratory viruses — RSV, influenza and SARS-CoV-2 — has been disrupting our daily lives. In addition, the media constantly reminds us of how this is straining emergency departments. How does the present respiratory virus season differ from seasons during the pre-COVID era? As a specialist in virus-host interaction, I would like to shed some light on the new dynamics of the respiratory virus season.

The infamous SARS-CoV-2

  • Despite limited access to screening tests, analysis of the number of hospital admissions shows that the virus is still going strong.
  • It has a strikingly efficient capacity to spread through aerosols, especially as we take refuge indoors to escape the cold.

Resurgence of seasonal flu

  • After a hiatus due to health measures, the influenza virus, which causes seasonal flu, has returned with the same force.
  • It is once again circulating in different variants belonging to Types (strains) A and B, although scientists believe that one Type B strain, the Yamagata lineage, has disappeared.

And what about RSV?

  • Bronchiolitis is characterized by the obstruction of the small airways, which can progress to wheezing or respiratory distress.
  • But RSV also severely affects the elderly and adults who are immunocompromised or have existing chronic conditions.
  • Admittedly, although these three viruses are attracting attention, other less publicized respiratory viruses are also circulating, demonstrating a diverse viral environment.

SARS-CoV-2 has turned everything upside down

  • The challenge is amplified by the extremely high transmission capacity of SARS-CoV-2 compared with influenza and RSV, which makes seasonal management much more complex.
  • But today, the picture has become even more complex with the continuing presence of SARS-CoV-2.

Beyond infection

  • In addition, it causes long-term consequences after infection, such as post-COVID syndrome (also known as long COVID), which affects millions of people.
  • The extent of the consequences of infection and reinfection on human health remains uncertain, as does the effectiveness of vaccines in limiting these effects.

The importance of vaccines

  • The final distinction from the pre-pandemic period is the arrival of RSV vaccines.
  • However, these two vaccines have not yet been officially recommended.
  • The trio of vaccines against COVID-19, influenza and RSV will certainly help to reduce the severe symptoms associated with respiratory virus infections in the coming seasons.


Nathalie Grandvaux received research funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé (FRQS), the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Fondation du centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, and the Ministère de l'économie et de l'innovation du Québec.

2023 Year in Review: TSA highlights a year of innovation and improvements to security effectiveness, efficiency and the passenger experience

Retrieved on: 
Friday, January 12, 2024

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) marked another successful year in 2023, making significant strides to improve transportation security effectiveness, efficiency and enhance the aviation passenger experience.

Key Points: 
  • WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) marked another successful year in 2023, making significant strides to improve transportation security effectiveness, efficiency and enhance the aviation passenger experience.
  • In 2023, TSA screened a record 858+ million passengers, an average of 2.4 million daily passengers at airport security checkpoints across the country.
  • As a result, TSA has seen a significant reduction in attrition and improvement in the ability to recruit for open positions.
  • Continued to purchase and deploy innovative checkpoint technologies that improve security effectiveness and efficiency, while enhancing the passenger experience.

NASA Analysis Confirms 2023 as Warmest Year on Record

Retrieved on: 
Friday, January 12, 2024

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Earth's average surface temperature in 2023 was the warmest on record, according to an analysis by NASA.

Key Points: 
  • WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Earth's average surface temperature in 2023 was the warmest on record, according to an analysis by NASA.
  • "NASA and NOAA's global temperature report confirms what billions of people around the world experienced last year; we are facing a climate crisis," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
  • However, the record temperatures in the second half of 2023 occurred before the peak of the current El Niño event.
  • NASA's full dataset of global surface temperatures through 2023, as well as details with code of how NASA scientists conducted the analysis, are publicly available from GISS.

Pall Corporation Introduces SepraLYTE™ Liquid/Gas Coalescers for Green Hydrogen Production

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, January 11, 2024

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y., Jan. 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Pall Corporation, a leading provider of filtration, separation and purification solutions, introduces SepraLYTE™ liquid/gas coalescers, an innovative solution designed to meet the increasing demand for efficient separation of electrolyte aerosols from gas in green hydrogen production processes.

Key Points: 
  • PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y., Jan. 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Pall Corporation, a leading provider of filtration, separation and purification solutions, introduces SepraLYTE™ liquid/gas coalescers, an innovative solution designed to meet the increasing demand for efficient separation of electrolyte aerosols from gas in green hydrogen production processes.
  • Green hydrogen is one of the cleanest ways to produce hydrogen and Pall provides solutions that enable production.
  • Leveraging advanced separation technology,  SepraLYTE coalescers excel in the separation of water or electrolyte aerosols (30% potassium hydroxide solution) from hydrogen, ensuring the purity of hydrogen produced from electrolysis processes.
  • These coalescers feature Pall's proprietary melt blown media technology, which achieves outstanding liquid mist separation with low differential pressure.

How industrial agriculture is disturbing the nitrogen cycle and undermining conditions for life on Earth

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Six of our nine planetary boundaries have now been crossed – and industrial agriculture are the main culprit.

Key Points: 
  • Six of our nine planetary boundaries have now been crossed – and industrial agriculture are the main culprit.
  • This notion of overstepping boundaries is clear in regard to the best-known limit of them all: that of climate change.
  • Yet in the case of the planetary boundary for nitrogen, exceeding the threshold is different, as it is the industrialisation of agriculture that is largely, and more complexly, responsible for breaking the limit.
  • But how can agriculture affect the nitrogen cycle?

The natural nitrogen cycle

  • First, we need to understand the natural cycle of carbon and nitrogen – two of the main elements that form living matter.
  • So, the boundaries of the nitrogen cycle have to remain local: any loss of nitrogen brings about a risk of soil depletion, which jeopardises continued plant growth.
  • The amount of nitrogen that is lost in the atmosphere and in groundwater is therefore considerable, and this loss makes nitrogen the main limiting factor in plant growth.
  • They do so through a symbiotic association with bacteria that have enzymes needed to convert molecular nitrogen into proteins.
  • It is this symbiotic fixation that offsets the natural environmental loss of nitrogen and ensures that terrestrial ecosystems function perennially.

Farming and fertilisation

  • Each time plants are harvested, the nitrogen contained in them is carried far away from the plot of soil where it came from.
  • That is the purpose of fertilisation.
  • There are many methods of fertilisation.
  • Indeed, this method was the basis of traditional systems of polyculture and livestock farming.
  • They quickly made traditional polyculture and livestock farming obsolete and paved the way to intensified and specialised agriculture, which was henceforth coupled with the heavy chemical industry.

Environmental nitrogen loss

  • In this accelerated flow of nitrogen, what causes trouble is the environmental nitrogen loss that results from it.
  • Indeed, the more nitrogenous fertilisers are used to increase crop yields, the less the added nitrogen is effective and the greater the losses through leaching and volatilisation.
  • What we call the nitrogen surplus is the excess of nitrogen put into the soil in relation to the quantity actually taken away through harvesting.

Feeding the world without ruining it

  • But can we reasonably scale down intensive farming without jeopardising the food security of a world that will have 10 billion mouths to feed by 2050?
  • Yet we can only do so if three major structural changes are made to the entire agrifood system at the same time as intensive agriculture is toned down.
  • On the contrary, this model of agriculture has now been clearly identified as a factor that disturbs the Earth’s system profoundly.
  • AFP and The Conversation France have maintained their editorial independence at every stage of the project.


Gilles Billen ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

908 Devices Announces MX908 Integration Capabilities

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, November 14, 2023

The MX908, an essential tool to identify illicit materials at trace levels in multiple forms, including solids, liquids, vapors and aerosols, will be integrated into both companies’ products, at the request of customers, to expand their capabilities.

Key Points: 
  • The MX908, an essential tool to identify illicit materials at trace levels in multiple forms, including solids, liquids, vapors and aerosols, will be integrated into both companies’ products, at the request of customers, to expand their capabilities.
  • “At 908 Devices, we’re broadening the reach of our differentiated technology so that our customers can have increased access to trace detection capabilities,” said John Kenneweg, Vice President of Government, 908 Devices.
  • With the integration of the MX908, it is the only UGV that provides standoff identification of aerosolized chemical warfare and pharmaceutical based agents.
  • To learn more about the MX908 and 908 Devices, please visit: 908devices.com .

NASA Invites Media to Launch of New Mission to Study Oceans, Clouds

Retrieved on: 
Monday, December 11, 2023

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Media accreditation is open for the upcoming launch of NASA's PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud ocean Ecosystem) Earth observing science mission.

Key Points: 
  • WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Media accreditation is open for the upcoming launch of NASA's PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud ocean Ecosystem) Earth observing science mission.
  • Media accreditation application deadlines for the PACE launch are as follows:
    U.S. media and U.S. citizens representing international media must apply by 5 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Jan. 17.
    International media without U.S. citizenship must apply by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 2.
  • Media accreditation requests must be submitted online at:
    NASA's media accreditation policy is available online.
  • The PACE mission will continue and improve NASA's 20-year record of satellite observations of global ocean biology, aerosols, and clouds.

Study published in Antiviral Research supports promise of Scinai Immunotherapeutics' coronavirus NanoAb as aerosolized prophylactic and therapeutic drug

Retrieved on: 
Monday, December 11, 2023

JERUSALEM, Dec. 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Scinai Immunotherapeutics Ltd. (Nasdaq: SCNI), a biopharmaceutical company focused on development of inflammation and immunology (I&I) biological products, is pleased to announce the publication following peer-review of an article titled "Nanobodies to multiple spike variants and inhalation of nanobody-containing aerosols neutralize SARS-CoV-2 in cell culture and hamsters" in the prestigious scientific journal Antiviral Research.

Key Points: 
  • The Antiviral Research paper covers several aspects of the NanoAbs, including their structure, mechanism of action, neutralization of a wide range of SARS-CoV-2 variants including Omicron, production in yeast, and formulation into aerosols.
  • "Our next pipeline project is an anti-IL-17 NanoAb for the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as plaque psoriasis and psoriasis arthritis.
  • Amir Reichman, CEO of Scinai, added "The publication of this prestigious journal article comes at an auspicious time for our company.
  • It is currently undergoing copyediting and typesetting and will soon be updated with the final version at this same link.

Abstrax and AVD Advance Inhalation Safety for the Cannabis Industry

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, November 29, 2023

TUSTIN, Calif., Nov. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Abstrax, the leader in botanical flavor technology, is thrilled to announce its partnership with Advanced Vapor Devices LLC (AVD), a leader in cannabis vaporizer technology, and McKinney Regulatory Science Advisors LLC to create and execute the cannabis industry's most comprehensive inhalation risk evaluation program.

Key Points: 
  • To accomplish this, the Abstrax team designed a special algorithm , based on robust consumer use data from multiple manufacturers of inhalable cannabis products.
  • The AVD collaboration has helped bolster RA-TEP's algorithm to offer a more realistic view of consumers' use and exposure.
  • "By elevating the standards of inhalation safety and compliance, we're not just safeguarding the consumer, but also pioneering a path of scientific rigor and integrity for the cannabis industry.
  • "We recognize the cannabis industry is facing a pivotal moment where the convergence of innovation and safety will mold and shape its future," said Casey Creaney, VP of Product Integration at AVD.