Development of asthma in young children may be associated with high exposure to particulate matter (PM). However, typical stationary samplers may not represent the personal exposure of children ages 3 and younger since they may not detect particles resuspended from the floor as children play, thus reducing our ability to correlate exposure and disease etiology. To address this, an autonomous robot, the Pretoddler Inhalable Particulate Environmental Robotic (PIPER) sampler, was developed to simulate the movements of children as they play on the floor. PIPER and a stationary sampler took simultaneous measurements of particle number concentration in six size channels using an optical particle counter and inhalable PM on filters in 65 homes in New Jersey, USA. To study particle resuspension, for each sampler we calculated the ratio of particle concentration measured while PIPER was moving to the average concentration of particles measured during a reference period when PIPER remained still. For all investigated particle sizes, higher particle resuspension was observed by PIPER compared to the stationary sampler. In 71% of carpeted homes a more significant (at the α = 0.05 level) resuspension of particles larger than 2.5 μm was observed by PIPER compared to the stationary sampler. Typically, particles larger than 2.5 μm were resuspended more efficiently than smaller particles, over both carpeted and bare floors. Additionally, in carpeted homes estimations of PM10 mass from the particle number concentrations measured on PIPER while it was moving were on average a factor of 1.54 higher compared to reference period when PIPER was not moving. For comparison, the stationary sampler measured an increase of PM2.5 mass by a factor of only 1.08 when PIPER was moving compared to a reference period. This demonstrates that PIPER is able to resuspend particles through movement, and provide a better characterization of the resuspended particles than stationary samplers. Accurate measurement of resuspended PM will improve estimates of children's total PM exposure.

中文翻译：

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使用固定式和机器人 (PIPER) 气溶胶采样器评估幼儿呼吸区中的颗粒再悬浮

幼儿哮喘的发展可能与颗粒物 (PM) 的高暴露有关。然而，典型的固定采样器可能无法代表 3 岁及以下儿童的个人暴露情况，因为它们可能无法检测到儿童玩耍时从地板上重新悬浮的颗粒，从而降低了我们将暴露与疾病病因联系起来的能力。为了解决这个问题，开发了一种自主机器人 Pretoddler Inhalable Particulate Environment Robotic (PIPER) 采样器，用于模拟儿童在地板上玩耍时的动作。PIPER 和固定式采样器使用光学粒子计数器和可吸入 PM 过滤器在美国新泽西州的 65 个家庭中同时测量六个尺寸通道中的粒子数浓度。为了研究粒子再悬浮，对于每个采样器，我们计算了 PIPER 移动时测得的颗粒浓度与参考期间 PIPER 保持静止时测得的颗粒平均浓度之比。对于所有研究的粒径，与固定采样器相比，PIPER 观察到更高的粒子再悬浮。在 71% 的铺有地毯的房屋中，与固定采样器相比，PIPER 观察到大于 2.5 μm 的颗粒的再悬浮更显着（在 α = 0.05 水平）。通常，在铺有地毯的地板和裸露的地板上，大于 2.5 μm 的颗粒比较小的颗粒更有效地重新悬浮。此外，在铺有地毯的房屋中，根据 PIPER 移动时在其上测量的粒子数浓度，对 PM10 质量的估计平均为 1 倍。与 PIPER 未移动时的参考期相比，高 54。为了进行比较，与参考时期相比，当 PIPER 移动时，固定采样器测量的 PM2.5 质量仅增加了 1.08 倍。这表明 PIPER 能够通过移动重新悬浮颗粒，并提供比固定采样器更好的重新悬浮颗粒表征。重新悬浮 PM 的准确测量将提高对儿童 PM 暴露总量的估计。