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Indoor pollution of manmade semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs) such as phthalates are a growing threat to human health. Herein we summarize the dust-phase phthalate concentrations in Chinese residences reported from 2011 to 2021 and simulate corresponding airborne concentrations based on equilibrium models. The simulation considers seasonal and regional variations in indoor temperature and PM2.5 concentration, in contrast to the common practice of using constant values. Results show that variations in these two environmental factors lead to up to ten- and six-fold variations in the monthly median gas- and particle-phase concentrations of phthalates, respectively, in residences in individual climate zones. For higher-vapor-pressure species di-n-butyl phthalate and di-isobutyl phthalate, the resultant seasonal and regional variations in aggregate non-diet intake can reach six- and three-fold, respectively. These results have important implications on exposure assessment of SVOCs and epidemiological evaluation of their health effects.

As a typical representative city of China’s hot and humid climate zone, Chongqing has an average annual relative humidity of 70% - 80%. Continuous online monitoring of indoor air quality (IAQ) were conducted in more than 20 residents of Chongqing city. It was found that the apartments in the area had excessive indoor absolute humidity in summer (far exceed the ASHRAE recommended comfort limit—12g/kg) and excessive indoor relative humidity in winter and transitional seasons. It is necessary to dehumidify the outdoor intake air during the summer and decrease the indoor related humidity during the winter and transition seasons. Based on the above two points, it is proposed to adopt a fresh air system with dehumidification function in Chongqing, which can remove excessive absolute humidity caused by outdoor air in high humidity month. The fresh air system, which changes natural ventilation to mechanical ventilation, increase indoor insulation effect and reduce relative humidity.

Mechanical ventilation system provides a more reliable, controllable, and comfortable way of ventilation than natural ventilation through an opened window. However, the operation of mechanical ventilation system cost energy. This study investigated the usage of natural and mechanical ventilation in 46 apartments in ten cities across five different climate zones in China by on-site monitoring and questionnaire survey. On average, the daily natural and mechanical ventilation durations were 11 hours and 7.2 hours, respectively. Large differences existed among climate regions and seasons. From north to south, as the climate became warmer, the usage of natural ventilation increased. From seasonal perspectives, natural ventilation duration was the longest in summer and the shortest in winter. The trend of mechanical ventilation usage was opposite to that of natural ventilation. Generally, as the outdoor air temperature increased, the duration of natural ventilation increased and the duration of mechanical ventilation decreased. This study proposed an outline to use thermal comfort, health, and energy saving as three motivations to analyze ventilation behaviors. Based on the obtained results, suggestions were made for achieving healthy, thermally comfortable, and energy efficient ventilation in residential buildings.

To evaluate the separate impacts on human health and establish effective control strategies, it is crucial to estimate the contribution of outdoor infiltration and indoor emission to indoor PM2.5 in buildings. This study used an algorithm to automatically estimate the long‐term time‐resolved indoor PM2.5 of outdoor and indoor origin in real apartments with natural ventilation. The inputs for the algorithm were only the time‐resolved indoor/outdoor PM2.5 concentrations and occupants' window actions, which were easily obtained from the low‐cost sensors. This study first applied the algorithm in an apartment in Tianjin, China. The indoor/outdoor contribution to the gross indoor exposure and time‐resolved infiltration factor were automatically estimated using the algorithm. The influence of outdoor PM2.5 data source and algorithm parameters on the estimated results was analyzed. The algorithm was then applied in four other apartments located in Chongqing, Shenyang, Xi'an, and Urumqi to further demonstrate its feasibility. The results provided indirect evidence, such as the plausible explanations for seasonal and spatial variation, to partially support the success of the algorithm used in real apartments. Through the analysis, this study also identified several further development directions to facilitate the practical applications of the algorithm, such as robust long‐term outdoor PM2.5 monitoring using low‐cost light‐scattering sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tumor-infiltrating immune cells have long been thought to affect tumor growth. In recent years, large retrospective studies have shown that the nature and polarization of the immune cells found within the tumor microenvironment impact not only the growth of the primary tumor, but also disease progression and patient survival. This has triggered considerable interest for an in depth analysis of the tumoral immune microenvironment and has created a need for standardized methods to characterize tumor-infiltrating immune cells. Here, we describe three approaches that can be used in mouse and human melanoma tumors.

The maintenance of immune homeostasis and the regulation of pro-inflammatory responses that underlie autoimmune pathology require a coordinated interplay between cytokines, cellular receptors and downstream signaling pathways. The family of fragment crystallizable receptors for immunoglobulin G (IgG) (Fc gammaR) represents a good example of how controlling the simultaneous triggering of activatory and/or inhibitory receptors results in a balanced immune response. Fc gammaRs play a crucial role in linking the antibody-mediated recognition of pathogens, allergens or auto-antigens to the cellular arm of the immune response. In this review, we detail how dysfunction in Fc gammaR pathways is linked to the development of the autoimmune disease, systemic lupus erythematosus.