Percorrer por autor "Almeida, Susana M."
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- Characterizing the fungal and bacterial microflora and concentrations in fitness centresPublication . Ramos, Carla A.; Viegas, Carla; Cabo Verde, Sandra; Wolterbeek, Humbert T.; Almeida, Susana M.Fitness centres are special places where conditions for microbiological proliferation should be considered. Moisture due to human perspiration and water condensation as a result of human physical activities are prevalent in this type of buildings. Exposure to microbial contaminants is clinically associated with respiratory disorders and people who work out in polluted environments would be susceptible to contaminants. This work studied the indoor air contamination in three gymnasiums in Lisbon. The sampling was performed at two periods: at the opening (morning) and closing (night) of the three gymnasiums. The airborne bacterial and fungal populations were sampled by impaction directly onto Tryptic Soy Agar (for bacteria) and Malt Extract Agar (for fungi) plates, using a Merck MAS-100 air sampler. Higher bacterial concentrations were found at night as compared to the morning but the same behaviour was not found for fungal concentrations. Gram-negative catalase positive cocci were the dominant bacteria in indoor air samples of the studied gymnasiums. In this study, 21 genera/species of fungal colonies were identified. Chrysosporium sp., Chrysonilia sp., Neoscytalidium hialinum, Sepedonium sp. and Penicillium sp. were the most prevalent species identified in the morning, while Cladosporium sp., Penicillium sp., Chrysosporium sp., Acremonium sp. and Chrysonilia sp. were more prevalent at night. A well-designed sanitation and maintenance program for gymnasiums is needed to ensure healthier space for indoor physical activity.
- Internal dose of particles in the elderly: modeling based on aerosol measurementsPublication . Almeida-Silva, Marina; Pilou, Marika; Housiadas, Christos; Almeida, Susana M.The paper presents an integrated methodology that combines experimental and modeling techniques and links exposure to airborne particulate matter (PM) with internal dose in the respiratory system and burden in adjacent tissues over a period of time. The methodology is used to estimate doses in the respiratory systems of elders that reside in 10 elderly care centers (ECCs) in the metropolitan area of Lisbon. Measurements of PM were performed in the ECCs and combined with a time-budget survey for the occupants. This information served as input to the first model that estimated particle doses in the different regions of the respiratory tract of the elderly, and then a second model was used to calculate particle build-up in the alveolar region, the interstitium and the hilar lymph nodes of the elders over a 5-year exposure period. It was found that in 5 years of continuous exposure to the average particle concentration measured over all ECCs, 258 mg of all particles are deposited on the surface of the alveoli of which 79.6% are cleared, 18.8% are retained in the alveolar region, 1.5% translocate to the hilar lymph nodes, and 0.1% are transferred to the interstitium.