Nowadays, an inhalation of naturally generated aerosols has again become a widely practiced method of balneological treatment of various respiratory diseases. The aim of this study was to characterize the microbial aerosol of subterraneotherapy chambers at the Bochnia Salt Mine Health Resort in southern Poland. The measurements were carried out using a 6-stage Andersen impactor over a period of 1 year in both indoor (i.e., two subterranean chambers, where curative treatments took place) and outdoor air. The maximum bacterial aerosol concentrations in the chambers reached 11,688 cfu/m3. In such interiors, a high-performance method of microbial contaminant reduction need be introduced, especially when large groups of young patients are medically cured. Respecting fungal aerosol, its average indoor concentration (88 cfu/m3) was significantly lower than outdoor level (538 cfu/m3). It confirms that ventilation system provides efficient barrier against this type of biologically active propagules. Among identified micro-organisms, the most prevalent indoors were Gram-positive cocci, which constituted up to 80 % of airborne microflora. As highly adapted to the diverse environments of its human host (skin, respiratory tract), they can be easily released in high quantities into the air. The number of people introduced into such subterranean chambers should be in some way limited. The analysis of microclimate parameters revealed that temperature and relative humidity influenced significantly the level of bacterial aerosol only. Hence, a constant control of these parameters should be scrupulously superintended at this type of subterranean premises.

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Municipal wastes collected in landfills are a significant source of air contamination and frequently characterize by elevated concentrations of different fungi. Posing a serious health threat to landfill workers and local residents, the fungal aerosol has to be monitored with respect to its quantity and quality. In this study, concentrations of airborne fungi, their particle size distribution, species composition and the presence of cytotoxic strains of Aspergillus fumigatus were assessed in different sites within the landfill area. The quantitative and qualitative changes in the fungal aerosol were determined with respect to a season and landfill activity level (i.e. exploitation or standstill periods). Within the landfill area, particular sites were grouped with regard to airborne fungi concentrations and similarities in species composition. The qualitative analysis indicated that 43 species were shared during both sampling times, and only nine species were characteristic for the standstill period. Among fungal isolates, 21 strains of A. fumigatus revealed cytotoxic activity expressed at different levels, depending on the fungal extract concentrations used in the MTT assay. The results suggested that exposure (especially in summer) to small airborne particles, containing distinct species, may occur not only in the active sector but also in close vicinity to the landfill. Hence, microbial monitoring of the landfill and surrounding area should be carried out taking into account both quantitative aspect supplemented by size distribution analysis and qualitative features, especially of those strains possessing cytotoxic activity.

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Air microbial quality of the municipal landfill site and in its surroundings was evaluated. Adverse impact of the municipal landfill site in Tarnow on the atmospheric environment was noted, despite the use of correct waste disposal technology. The sampling site and season of the year significantly affected the numbers of various groups of air microorganisms at the municipal landfill site and in its vicinity. For most cases, the effects of the sampling site on the microbial numbers were stronger than that of the season of the year. In this study, higher microbial numbers were observed at the sampling sites located in the area of the active landfill site compared to those located in its vicinity. The obtained results indicate, that despite the lack of current limits for bioaerosol levels the landfill site, even after its closing and reclamation, may still not be a suitable place for any public usage. Therefore, any regular microbiological studies of air should be carried out for a long time both at the area of landfill site and in its vicinity. These results could allow to define the time, when the landfill site become stable, regarding the numbers of microorganisms released to air.

We consider smooth area-preserving flows (also known as locally Hamiltonian flows) on surfaces of genus g ≥ 1 and study ergodic integrals of smooth observables along the flow trajectories. We show that these integrals display a power deviation spectrum and describe the cocycles that lead the pure power behaviour, giving a new proof of results by Forni (Annals 2002) and Bufetov (Annals 2014) and generalizing them to observables which are non-zero at fixed points. This in particular completes the proof of the original formulation of the Kontsevitch-Zorich conjecture. Our proof is based on building suitable correction operators for cocycles with logarithmic singularities over a full measure set of interval exchange transformations (IETs), in the spirit of Marmi-Moussa-Yoccoz work on piecewise smooth cocycles over IETs. In the case of symmetric singularities, exploiting former work of the second author (Annals 2011), we prove a tightness result for a finite codimension class of observables. We then apply the latter result to prove the existence of ergodic infinite extensions for a full measure set of locally Hamiltonian flows with non-degenerate saddles in any genus g ≥ 2.2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. 37E35, 37A40, 37A10, 37C83. 1 More precisely, referring to the decomposition described in § 2.1.1, we call Arnold flow the restriction to a minimal component obtained by removing the center and the disk filled by periodic orbits around it (called island), which, as Arnold shows in [2], is always bounded by a saddle loop.

Municipal waste plants can be a source of biological contamination of the environment, depending on the method of operation and the type of collected waste. The aim of this study was the quantitative characteristics of airborne microorganisms at the Barycz municipal waste sorting plant in Cracow. Bioaerosol measurements of indoor and outdoor air of the municipal waste sorting plant were performed during the summer season using a six-stage Andersen cascade impactor. The highest concentration of bacterial and fungal aerosol was observed in the medium fraction sorting room (129.02×103 cfu·m-3 and 116.21×103 cfu·m-3, respectively). There were statistically significant differences in the concentrations of bacterial and fungal aerosol between indoor and outdoor air. The calculations showed a significant correlation between the concentration of bioaerosol and particulate matter. Based on the analysis of bioaerosol particle size distribution, it was found that the concentration of bacteria and fungi has a maximum value in the diameter range 3.3-7.0 μm. The study confirmed that the municipal waste sorting plants can be causing exposure to microbiological agents.