Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are compact regions in the centers of some galaxies. They emit significantly in the whole range of the electromagnetic spectrum and show variability at different timescales. Observational evidence suggests the presence of a dusty torus obscuring the central radiation source of AGN. According to the Unified Model the observed general properties of AGN emission can be understood on the basis of orientation of this torus toward an observer. Two main types of AGN are distinguished: Type 1, with detected emission from the inner torus cavity viewed pole-on, and Type 2, viewed through the obscuring torus. There are numerous attempts in the past decade to model the emission from the torus, considering a homogeneous distribution of dust. However, important problems in explaining the observations still remain unsolved: it is hard to suppress the 10 m emission feature of silicate dust for a pole-on view and at the same time produce an absorption feature for an edge-on viewed torus; despite the huge optical depths inferred from X-ray observations of Type 2 sources, the observed absorption feature is shallow. Unlike observations, models of homogeneous tori with large optical depths always produce deep absorption feature. While it is realized that dust contained in clumps would resolve these issues, modeling of a clumpy medium poses a serious computational challenge. We are the first to incorporate clumps in our model of a dusty torus and to successfully explain the infrared emission from AGN. We model two types of clouds: directly illuminated by the AGN and diffusely heated by other clouds. We calculate the emission of the first type as angle-averaged emission from a dusty slab. The second type of clouds is modeled as dusty spheres embedded in the radiation field of the directly heated clouds. The radiative transfer problem for a dusty slab and externally heated sphere is solved exactly with our code DUSTY. The overall emission of the torus is found by integration over the spatial distribution of clouds. We find a very good agreement of our model results with observations. Comparison with them can constrain the physical conditions in the AGN dusty tori.

Two of the main safety and health issues recognized during deep cut coal mining are methane and dust hazards. Advances in continuous miner technology have improved safety and productivity. However, these advances have created some environmental problems, notably more dust and methane being generated at the face during coal extraction. Results of studies performed in the last three decades concerning the face ventilation for deep cut mining showed very complicated airflow behavior. The specifics of flow patterns developed by the face ventilation systems presents significant challenge for analytical description even for equipment-free entry. Fortunately, there are methods, such as numerical simulations that could be used to provide an engineering solution to the problem. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes have been successfully applied during the last decade using the power of Supercomputers. Although significant progress has been made, a benchmark industry oriented CFD code dedicated to face ventilation is still not available. The goal of this project is to provide the mining industry a software for CFD analysis and design of face ventilation systems. A commercial CFD system SC/Tetra Thermofluid Analysis System with Unstructured Mesh Generator, copyright © Cradle Co, was selected for a development platform. A number of CFD models were developed for the needs of this study including methane release, dust generation, 3D models of commonly used continuous mining machines, scrubbers and water spray systems. The developed models and the used CFD code were successfully validated in the part for methane dilution, using available data from small scale and full scale experiments. The developed models for simulation of dust control systems need to be validated in the future. The developed code automates all necessary steps needed for simulation of face ventilation systems, starting with the construction of a 3D model, generation of the computational mesh, solving and monitoring the calculations, to post-processing and graphical representation of the obtained results. This code shall allow mining engineers to design better and safer face ventilation systems while providing the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) a tool to check and approve the industry’ proposed ventilation plans.

Dust capture for small coal particles (<2.5µm) can be improved if one takes advantage of electrostatic charges that resides on the surface of coal dust particles and on the surface of water spray droplets used to capture coal dust. Traditional dust capture methods that use water sprays are ineffective in capturing small dust particles since the motion of small dust particles is governed by electrostatic forces. If additives such as ionic surfactants could be added to water that would enhance the surface charge on water spray droplets, dust capture with water sprays could be improved. The results presented show that n-sodium octyl sulfate causes the greatest charge enhancement versus the longer chained n-sodium dodecyl sulfate and n-sodium octadecyl sulfate. This can be explained by considering the factors that lead to droplet charge enhancement. Those factors are the mass of surfactant ions at the droplet surface, and the diffusion rate of the surfactant ions from the bulk droplet to the surface of the droplet. Sodium octyl sulfate will have a faster diffusion rate to the droplet surface because of its relatively short length, and will also maximize the mass balance of surfactant ions at the drop surface.

Ice formation largely influences the properties of clouds and hence it has an important impact on weather and climate. Primary ice formation is a consequence of either homogeneous or heterogeneous ice nucleation. The latter process is catalyzed by a foreign substance called Ice Nucleating Particle (INP). Mineral dust particles were found to contribute to atmospheric INPs. Most types of mineral dust are ice active below -20 °C. In contrast, atmospheric observations indicate that immersion freezing as one of the most important heterogeneous ice nucleation processes can occur at temperatures higher than -15 °C. One possible explanation for cloud glaciation at high temperatures might be the presence of biological material (e.g. bacteria) inducing ice nucleation. Our fundamental process and even qualitative understanding concerning atmospheric heterogeneous ice nucleation is limited. In the framework of the present thesis, experimental and theoretical work was carried out to improve the basic understanding of the immersion freezing behavior of mineral dust and bacterial INPs. On the basis of model simulations immersion freezing experiments were designed at the Leipzig Aerosol Cloud Interaction Simulator (LACIS). The immersion freezing behavior of mineral dust and bacterial INPs was studied in dependence of temperature and particle surface area/number at LACIS. As a results of the present thesis, it was found that the immersion freezing behavior of kaolinite being a proxy of mineral dust INPs does not depend on the droplet volume, but on the particle surface area. The kaolinite particles investigated caused freezing below -30 °C. In contrast, Ice Nucleation Active (INA) protein complexes that are attributed to bacterial INPs were found to induce freezing at -7 °C. Furthermore, it was shown that the ice nucleation activity of protein complexes is very similar regardless of whether the INA protein complex is attached to the outer cell membrane of intact bacteria or to cell membrane fragments. The immersion freezing ability depends on the number and type of INA protein complexes present in the droplet ensemble. The immersion freezing ability of mineral dust and bacterial INPs was parameterized accounting for the time effect. With this, results from literature could be reproduced for both INP types. These parameterizations can be used in e.g. cloud resolving atmospheric models.

Numerical simulations are a useful tool to understand galaxies. In addition to gravitation, other processes can be included for chemodynamical simulations: star formation, feedback of newly formed and evolving stars, metal enrichment, cooling of the interstellar medium, etc. These simulations describe in a self-consistent way the hydrodynamical and chemical evolution of galaxies. I use chemodynamical simulations to build up a model of evolution of the dust mass, solid component of the interstellar medium, in our Galaxy and in dwarf galaxies. I have performed simulations of a massive galaxy to understand localeffects on dust evolution while simulations of dwarf galaxies have been carried out to follow the dust mass in low metallicity environments. Chemodynamical simulations have shown that they are useful. Indeed, local effects and transport mechanisms are naturally included and turn out to be important for a model of dust mass production and destruction.

Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) have been used in a variety of consumer products to enhance their fire safety. This has resulted in exposure of the environment, wildlife and humans causing risks of endocrine disruption. The use restrictions of many BFRs have resulted in the introduction of other brominated chemicals (emerging BFRs) on the market. Humans are exposed to BFRs primarily via diet and dust ingestion, but the importance of the different exposure pathways has scarcely been studied. Children in particular have not been studied well due to lack of biomonitoring data. In this thesis, a mother-toddler cohort (n=24) from Uppsala was studied for their exposure to tri-decabrominated diphenyl ethers (tri-decaBDEs), isomer-specific hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs) and emerging BFRs (EBFRs). A clean-up and fractionation method was developed for determination of the above-mentioned BFRs in the same sample without dividing the sample. Measures of external exposure from dietary intake and dust ingestion were estimated. These were compared to internal concentrations (serum, feces) to determine which exposure pathways were most important for explaining the different BFR concentrations and patterns found in mothers and toddlers. Taking all the results into account, the toddlers’ higher serum levels of tetra-pentaBDEs seem to be the result of previous breastfeeding and those of octa-decaBDEs from exposure to house dust. For mothers, diet was estimated to be the main exposure route of tri-hexaBDEs and HBCDs. Dust ingestion was estimated to be the main route for BDE-209 exposure in mothers. Significant correlations were found between the tetra-decaBDE concentrations in matched serum and feces samples indicating that feces could be used as a non-invasive sample matrix for biomonitoring of PBDEs in toddlers. EBFRs were detected in the feces of toddlers and in a few serum samples from both mothers and toddlers indicating that exposure to these replacement chemicals occurs. / <p><strong> </strong>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Submitted. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>

This dissertation deals with spectral measurements of solar radiation in the visible and near infrared wavelength range. The data were collected during a field campaign on the Cape Verde Islands in January / February 2008 within the DFG research group SAMUM 2 (Saharan Mineral Dust Experiment). During this campaign airborne measurements of upward radiances and irradiances were performed over aerosol layers. Since the Cape Verde Islands are in the advection area of air masses from the Sahara region northeast of the islands and from regions with bush fires from the southeast, the sampled aerosol mainly consists of mineral dust, biomass burning smoke or a mixture of both. These radiation measurements and airborne lidar measurements of aerosol extinction coefficients were used to calculate the dust radiative forcing at the top of atmosphere with an one-dimensional radiative transfer model. This required the spectral surface albedo and aerosol optical properties, determined by model retrievals. The dependence of the calculated dust radiative forcing on the aerosol optical thickness was used to distinguish between aerosol distributions with mineral dust only or mixed with biomass burning smoke. This mainly model-based method was compared with another mainly measurement-based method, which requires the net radiation at the flight altitude and its dependence on the aerosol optical thickness to distinguish between the different aerosol distributions. The mainly model-based method shows no differences between the calculated radiative forcings of aerosols mainly consisting of mineral dust and those mixed with biomass burning smoke due to high uncertainties. In contrast to the mainly model-based method, the mainly measurement-based method shows clear differences between aerosols with and without biomass burning smoke. Thus the mainly measurement-based method is the preferred method, because it omits the retrieval of the aerosol optical properties, which leads to high uncertainties, in contrast to the mainly model-based method.

Background: Tailings dam workers are exposed to tailings dust that has a potential health risk due to the element contents in the dust. The extent of exposure of tailings dam workers is unknown. Consequently, the elements, level of exposure, the potential adverse effects to health, compliance to legislative requirements and the efficiency of the current control measures were investigated. Design and Method: During the trials, 69 personal dust samples were collected during three full production shifts from tailings dam workers in three different tailings dam environments. The field filters were weighed to calculate the total dust concentrations. Bulk samples and field filters were analysed using the 32-element and particle size distribution scans. The between-dam, between-days and between-group variances were determined to assess the changes in exposure levels. Results: The tailings dam workers were not overexposed to tailings dust. Mean exposures were below the OEL for PNOC, measuring 0,124 mg/m3 (TD 1) 0,366 mg/m3 (TD 2) and 2,956 mg/m3 (TD 3). Three outliers in the data were present in TD 3 and exceeded the action level for PNOC. A major part of the particle size distribution consisted of inhalable sizes (>I0 μm). Cyclone tailings dams have smaller particle sizes than spigot tailings dams, though 85% of the particles in all tailings dams were larger than 10 μm. Some elements identified in the dust have potential respiratory health effects. No significant differences existed between the three tailings dams regarding tailings dust concentrations (p=0,527 on 5% significant level and p=0,292 on 10% significant level). There was, however, a significant difference on a 5% significant level between the days (p=0,003 and p=0,006). The workers on the cyclone tailings dams had smaller exposures than workers on the spigot tailings dams, and the pipeline labourers were more exposed than the mudguards. The tailings dams did comply with legislative control measures. However, washing facilities for the cleaning of overalls due to elements in the dust, such as nickel, chromium and manganese need to be considered. Workers need to be educated in work practices and procedures, personal hygiene and symptoms that can be experienced after exposure. Engineering control measures such as water sprayers covering the entire tailings dam, the use of fixed or temporary windscreens in the area where work is done and covering of the roads on the tailings dam with gravel or water spray can be considered as dust suppressant controls. Conclusion: The study met the issues set out in chapter 1, hypotheses were rejected and accepted and future studies were suggested. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Occupational Hygiene))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Der Eintrag von Mineralstaub in den Ozean geschieht entweder durch trockene oder durch nasse Deposition. Dies ist ein wichtiger Prozess um ozeanische Organismen wie Phytoplankton mit Nährstoffen (z.B. Nitrat, Phosphat oder Eisen) zu versorgen. Viele Modelle befassen sich mit der Simulation von Depositionsflüssen von Mineralstaub in den Ozean. Messungen von Massendepositionsflüssen von Mineralstaub sind hingegen selten. Daher ist es von großer Notwendigkeit, diese Messungen durchzuführen um die vielen Modelle zu validieren und den Mineralstaubzyklus besser zu verstehen. Innerhalb des SOPRAN Projektes (Surface Ocean PRocesses in the ANthropocene) wird der Materialtransport zwischen der Atmosphäre und dem Ozean untersucht. Die Messungen dafür wurden auf den Kapverdischen Inseln durchgeführt, über welchen der Saharastaub durch die Passatwindzirkulation vorwiegend transportiert wird. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit werden in-situ Messungen von trockener Deposition von Mineralstaub in den Ozean präsentiert. Verschiedene Methoden wurden auf ihre Anwendbarkeit getestet und deren Ergebnisse miteinander verglichen. Alle Messergebnisse liegen im Bereich der Messunsicherheiten, wodurch ein Satz qualitätsgesicherter Daten aufgebaut werden konnte. Diese Daten wurden mit den Ergebnissen eines regionalen Chemie-Transport Modells verglichen. Modellierte Massendepositionsflüsse von Mineralstaub waren manchmal doppelt so hoch wie gemessene. Die größte Unsicherheit der Modelle liegt in der Emission des Mineralstaubs, die im Transport und der Deposition fortgesetzt wird. Weitere Unterschiede entstehen durch den Vergleich von Punktmessungen mit einer Gitterzelle, wenn der Staub nicht gleichmäßig über die Gitterzelle verteilt ist. Zusammenfassend wurden Massendepositionsmessungen von Mineralstaub erfolgreich mit verschiedenen Methoden durchgeführt. Mit den Erfahrungen aus dieser Studie ist es nun möglich, Langzeitmessungen von Mineralstaubdeposition in den Ozean erstellen. Diese Daten können von Atmosphärenmodellierern für ihre Modellvalidierung genutzt werden. Anwender von Ozeanmodellen und SOPRAN Partner werden diese Ergebnisse nutzen um z.B. die ozeanische Reaktion auf den Mineralstaubeintrag zu untersuchen. / The input of mineral dust to the oceans, via dry or wet deposition, is an important process, because the entrainment of nutrients (e.g., Nitrate, Phosphor and Iron) is essential for oceanic life such as phytoplankton. A lot of effort has been done to model the dust deposition fluxes to the ocean. However, field measurements concerning the deposition flux are sparse. Therefore, those measurements are needed in order to verify the huge amount of model outputs and to better understand the mineral dust cycle. Within the project SOPRAN (Surface Ocean PRocesses in the ANthropocene), the influence of material exchange between the atmosphere and the ocean is investigated. Measurements were carried out at the Cape Verde Islands in the direct outflow of the Saharan Desert. This study presents the first in-situ measurements of the dry mass deposition flux of mineral dust to the ocean. The applicability of different methods was tested and the results were compared to each other. The results of the measured data were comparable and a set of quality assured data could be built up. Those results were compared to the output of a regional chemistry- transport model. The modeled mass deposition flux was sometimes double as high as the measured one. The main uncertainty of the models is the emission of mineral dust at the source region, proceeding in the transport and emission of mineral dust. Furthermore, comparing single point measurements with outputs of a grid cell leads to differences in deposition fluxes by an inhomogeneous distribution of the mineral dust layer. Summarizing, the measurements of the mass deposition flux of mineral dust could be performed successfully with several methods. With the expertise of this study, long-term observations of the mineral dust deposition to the ocean can now be established. These data can be used by atmosphere modelers to validate their models. Ocean modelers and partners of the SOPRAN project will use these data to investigate e.g., the biological response of the ocean to mineral dust entrainment.

Using data from the SCUBA Legacy Catalogue (850 µm) and Spitzer (3.6 - 70 µm), we explore dense cores in the Ophiuchus, Taurus, Perseus, Serpens, and Orion molecular clouds. In particular, we focus on identifying which cores host young stars while others remain starless. Understanding the nature of star formation and the influence of local environment will give us insight into several key properties, such as the origin of stellar mass. Here, we present starless and protostellar core mass functions (CMFs) for the five clouds. We develop a new method to discriminate starless from protostellar cores, using Spitzer colours and positions. We found best-fit slopes to the high-mass end of −1.26±0.20, −1.22±0.06, −0.95±0.20, and −1.85±0.53 for Ophiuchus, Taurus, Perseus, and Orion, respectively. We were unable to fit a slope to our fifth cloud, Serpens. Broadly, these slopes are consistent with the −1.35 power-law seen in the Salpeter IMF, but suggest some differences. We examined a variety of trends between these CMF shapes and their parent cloud properties, potentially finding a correlation between the high-mass slope and temperature. We also attempt to predict what future surveys with SCUBA-2 will detect in each of our clouds.