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Research Grants for Returning Post-Doctoral Fellows
Estimating Intra-Urban Exposure Patterns to Traffic-Related Pollution
with a Distributed Sensors Network
Research on the complex nature of air pollutants in populated areas is needed
for obtaining a better understanding of exposure, source apportionment and
representativeness of monitoring sites. Estimates of human exposure to air pollutants
rely either on measurements taken by air quality monitoring sites, interpolation of
measurements or model predictions. These methods, however, are unable to resolve
the fine spatial structure of air pollutants concentrations in complex environments.
This study aims to test the applicability of a novel and emerging technology for
measuring air pollutants in an urban environment using a wireless distributed sensors
network of small and affordable air pollution sensors. A network of several tens of
stationary air quality nodes is deployed in Haifa, Israel. Each node is equipped with
several pollution sensors (NO
2
, O
3
, CO and particles) as well as temperature, relative
humidity, GPS and communication modules. Applying the network of tens of sensors
over a period of few months will result in multiple samplings of each location, and
allow a robust analysis.
Research publications
(1)
Moltchanov, S., Levy, I., Etzion, Y., Lerner, U., Broday, D.M., & Fishbain, B. (2014). On the feasibility
of measuring air pollution at dense urban areas by wireless distributed sensor networks.
Science of the
Total Environment, 502
, 537–547. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.09.059
Ilan Levy
1
| David Broday
1
Barak Fishbain
1
1. Technion -
Israel Institute of Technology
2012-
Chemical Exposure, Granulosa Cell Exosomes, and Oocyte/Embryo Quality
There is currently a concern regarding adverse effects from exposure to environmental
chemicals that may act through disruption of the endocrine system (EDCs). In a recent
in vitro study, we showed a dose-response association of bisphenol A (BPA) with the
final stages of human oocyte maturation (Human Reproduction, October 2013). The
mechanism(s) by which EDCs such as BPA and phthalates may affect oocyte maturation
and embryo quality is not well understood. We hypothesize that exposure to BPA
and phthalates impairs the signal transmission within the ovarian follicle. Novel
studies have proposed that intracellular transmission of extracellular vesicles such
as exosomes within the follicle might involve secretion and uptake of microRNAs
(miRNAs). MiRNAs are short non-coding RNAs that target complementary mRNAs
to silence their translation into proteins. Growing evidence indicates that exosome-
contained miRNAs can transfer molecular signals among tissues through human
fluids. The aims of this pilot study are to determine the associations of follicular
fluid levels of BPA and phthalate metabolites among miRNA granulosa cell-derived
exosomes with oocyte maturation and day three embryo quality.
Ronit Machtinger
1,2
Andrea Baccarelli
3
Russ Hauser
3
Catherine Racowsky
3,4
1. The Chaim Sheba Medical
Center at Tel Hashomer
2. Tel Aviv University
3. Harvard University, USA
4. Brigham and Women's Hospital,
USA
2013-