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An investigation into the light scattering properties of Saharan dust grains is presented. An electrodynamic trap has been used to levitate single dust particles. By adjusting the trap parameters, partial randomisation of the particle orientation has been introduced. While levitated, the particles were illuminated by a laser, and a rotating half-wave retarder enabled selection of vertically or horizontally polarized incident light. A laser diffractometer and linear photodiode array have been used to measure intensity at scattering angles between 0.5° and 177°. Combining these measurements with Fraunhofer diffraction as calculated for a range of appropriately-sized apertures allows the calculation of the phase function and degree of linear polarization. The phase functions and degree of linear polarisation for four case study particles are presented - the phase functions are found to be featureless across most of the scattering region, with none of the halo features or rainbow peaks associated with regularly shaped particles such as hexagonal columns or spheres. Particle models comprised of large numbers of facets have been constructed to resemble the levitated particles. Utilizing Gaussian random sphere methods, increasing levels of roughness have been added to the surfaces of these models. A Geometric Optics model and a related model, Ray Tracing with Diffraction on Facets, have been modified to calculate scattering on these particle reconstructions. Scattering calculations were performed on each of these reconstructions using a range of refractive indices and two rotation regimes – one where the orientations of the reconstructed particle were limited to match those observed when the particle was levitated, and one where the orientation was not limited. Qualitative comparisons are performed on the phase functions and degree of linear polarization, where it is observed that the addition of roughness to the modelled spheroids causes the computed phase functions to increasingly resemble those from the levitated particles. Limiting the orientation of the particles does not affect the scattering noticeably. The addition of a very small absorption coefficient does not change the comparisons considerably. As the absorption coefficient is increased, however, the quality of the comparisons decreases rapidly in all cases but one. The phase functions are quantitatively compared using RMS errors, and further comparison is performed using the asymmetry parameter.

Poultry houses might have high levels of airborne pathogens, including Escherichia coli (E. coli) and avian influenza (AI), which may be transmitted through the air and pose risks of infection. The objective of the dissertation is to provide an insightful understanding the of airborne transmission of E. coli and AI which were attached to poultry dust particles. Chapter I and VI summarized background, gap in knowledge, and discussed the limitations and implications of the study. Chapter II compared the efficiency of Andersen six-stage impactor, all-glass impinger, and ACD-200 Bobcat, in collecting airborne E. coli carried by dust particles. The results showed that the Andersen six-stage impactor and the all-glass impinger outperformed the Bobcat sampler. Airborne E. coli were found to mainly aggregate on large particles (>7.0 µm). The survivability of E. coli in poultry litter under different environmental conditions was described in Chapter III. The survivability of airborne E. coli was found to have a half-life time of 5.7 ± 1.2 min, while the survivability of settled E. coli and E. coli in poultry litter were much longer with half-life times of 9.6 ± 1.6 hrs and 15.9 ± 1.3 hrs, respectively. The effect of ultraviolet (UV) light on the inactivation of airborne E. coli carried by poultry dust particles under laboratory conditions was explored in Chapter IV. The inactivation rates varied from over 99.87% and 99.95% at 5.62 s of contact time to 72.90% and 86.60% at 0.23 s of contact time, with 1,707 µW cm−2 and 3,422 µW cm−2 of UV irradiance, respectively. Utilizing computational modeling to assess the risk of airborne and deposited AI carried by poultry-litter dust particles was investigated in Chapter V. Results showed that concentrations of airborne AI transmitted to other farms in a day were lower than the minimal infective dose for poultry. The study suggests that factors such as infected location and type of poultry house may influence the risk of airborne transmission of HPAI. In conclusion, this dissertation explores sampling methods, survivability, mitigation technologies for airborne transmission of pathogens in poultry, and factors affecting infection probabilities in the poultry industry.

Interstellar dust plays an important role in the physics of the interstellar medium, as well as the formation and evolution of stars. The presence of dust is often indicated in optical images by dark lanes which bisect spiral galaxies, or seen directly as reflection nebulosity around stars or emission nebulosity if sufficient heating is present. Of interest in this thesis is the dust that is associated with bipolar outflow sources. Bipolar outflows can occur in either evolved stars or in young stellar objects, and are so named because they consist of two lobes which are thought to be due to out-flowing dust and gas, with a dark lane between them due to thick dust in a circumstellar disk or shell which often blocks the light from the central star. The spatial distribution of the properties of dust around bipolar outflow sources has been examined using a combination of theoretical and observational techniques. To aid the interpretation of observations of bipolar outflow sources, we have modelled the wavelength dependence of light from 0.36 to 22\um, scattered by dust particles with varying characteristics. The results were then presented in the form of colour excess ratios. These model ratios can be applied to observations if the contribution due to the central star is able to be removed, such that all that remains in the image is the effect of the dust particles. The scattering of light by dust particles was modelled by varying six different characteristics: grain material, size (particle radius from 0.002 to 0.75\um), mantle temperatures and thicknesses, shape, and orientation. Of those characteristics, the largest variation in the colour excess ratios resulted from varying grain composition and size. Different scattering angles also produce a noticeable variation in the colour excess ratios, however the effect is difficult to distinguish from the general extinction due to dust around the source. Water ice mantles were also found to significantly change the colour excess ratios. Grain shape and orientation produced only small variations in the colour excess ratios. Three bipolar outflow sources were studied as part of this thesis, two evolved objects, OH~231.8+4.2 and Mz\,3, and the young T-Tauri object Rno\,91. The observations involved multi-wavelength imaging in the infrared, from which colours and colour excess ratios were obtained at various points of the bipolar outflows and then compared to the predictions made in the modelling. The most extensive data set analysed was seven images of the object OH~231.8+4.2 which were used in a multi-wavelength study in the infrared H to N bands (1.25--12\um). The central source position of the object has been confined to less than an arcsec using the longer wavelength images and an L--M colour image. The two peaks which dominate the lobes in the shorter wavelength images were found to be scattering peaks where the light from the central source is scattered from the walls of the lobes. The spatial distribution of water ice in the nebula has also been constrained to the circumstellar disk which has a torus or disk shape rather than being a spherical shell. The colour excess ratios derived for the nebula from the images also suggest slightly different dust properties between the circumstellar disk, lobe walls and within the lobe cavities. The young T-Tauri star Rno\,91 also contains ice, and was observed between J and L. The central star which illuminates the nebula was shown to be coincident with the brightest point in these images. Using colour excess ratio results for various parts of the nebula, it was shown that the dust close to the central star is likely to contain larger grains than the diffuse ISM, but with a similar composition. Moving away from the central star, the dust becomes more like that observed in the diffuse ISM. The presence of water ice on dust close to the central star was confirmed using images centred in the ice band. The protoplanetary bipolar outflow source Mz\,3 is slightly more evolved than OH 231.8+4.2, and does not have evidence of any water ice in the circumstellar disk. Images of this object were obtained between J and 10\um. The presence of warm dust throughout the inner bipolar lobes of this object is noticeable by the brightness of the lobes in the image at 10\um. Line profiles through the position of the central source of the 10\um\ image demonstrate that there is a circumstellar shell close to the central source which has an inner radius of $\lta\,375$\,AU. Colour excess ratio results for the bipolar lobes suggest that the dust associated with Mz\,3 is generally smaller than that found in the diffuse ISM. The properties of the dust in the bipolar lobes were also observed to be different to the dust closer to the central source and lying in the circumstellar disk. The small sizes for dust in Mz\,3 is consistent with the high velocity outflows that have been associated with the object.