Pulsed UV light decontamination of naturally-produced, virus-laden airstreams

Topnotch希望检查其脉冲紫外光系统在净化含有病原体的气流中的潜力，已经表明它可以比竞争性方法（对于B.subtilis，MRSA，E.Coli和金黄色葡萄球菌）更快地使用更少的能量消毒病原体负载的固体表面。据推测，这种技术可以应用于消毒的空气经过脉冲紫外线源。拟议的研究将允许量化公司现有系统的潜在改进，然后可以应用于新一代“清洁”空气处理设备，提高效率和效率，以及研究新的病原体及其去除。这种设备可用于改善医院和长期护理设施的空气质量，同时减少设施周围空气传播病原体的机会。该项目启动了一项创新计划，首先研究现实的、自然发生的以及人工创造的、充满病毒的气流中的呼吸道病毒。实验将在西区新的2x2x2m咳嗽室设施中进行，由医生转介从学生健康服务招募25名受试者到实验室。他们将咳嗽几次进入腔室，空气采样器将在距离口腔最多2米的距离处对液滴进行采样（用于病毒RNA分析），无论脉冲灯是否工作。将使用粒子图像测速法（PIV）在距离口腔约1 m处测量受试者咳嗽的气流速度，以量化受试者咳嗽的强度。为确保研究数据充足，在单独的实验中，人工产生的含有已知浓度的1级RNA噬菌体的气溶胶（囊病毒科病毒phi6）的消毒效果，并评估不同的脉冲紫外灯设置对降低液滴中病毒含量的影响。生物提供了一个新的分类数据库的微生物灭活曲线的消毒各种空气中的病原微生物。

Topnotch wishes to examine the potential of their pulsed UV light system in decontaminating pathogen containing airflows, having shown it can disinfect solid surfaces of pathogen load, faster, using less energy, than competitive methods (for B.subtilis, MRSA, E.Coli and Staphylococcus aureus). It is hypothesized that this technology can be applied to disinfection of air travelling past the pulsed UV source. The proposed research will allow quantification of potential improvements to the company's existing systems that could then be applied to a new generation of "clean" air handling equipment with enhanced effectiveness and efficiencies, as well as to the study of new pathogens and their removal. Such equipment can be used to improve air quality in hospitals and long-term care facilities, while reducing the chances of airborne pathogen transfer around the facility. The project initiates an innovative program, commencing with a study of respiratory virus in realistic, naturally-occurring, as well as artificially created, virus-laden airstreams. Experiments will be conducted in the new 2x2x2m cough chamber facility at Western with 25 subjects recruited to the lab from Student Health Services by doctor referral. They will cough into the chamber several times and air samplers will sample droplets (for viral RNA analysis) at distances of up to 2m from the mouth with and without the pulsed lamp operating. Airflow velocity measurements of the subject's coughs will be made using particle image velocimetry (PIV) at approximately 1m away from the mouth to quantify the strength of that subject's coughs. To ensure adequate data from the study, in separate experiments artificially-generated aerosols containing known concentrations of a level-1 RNA bacteriophage (phi6 of the Cystoviridae virus family) will be introduced into the chamber and the effects of different pulsed UV lamp settings on reducing viral content of the droplets assessed.Future work will encompass the disinfection efficiency of pulsed UV light on a range of airborne micro-organisms to provide a new classification database of microbial inactivation curves for the disinfection of various airborne pathogenic micro-organisms.