Spatial and spatiotemporal modelling of intra-urban ultrafine particles: A comparison of linear, nonlinear, regularized, and machine learning methods.

Background: Machine learning methods are proposed to improve the predictions of ambient air pollution, yet few studies have compared ultrafine particles (UFP) models across a broad range of statistical and machine learning approaches, and only one compared spatiotemporal models. Most reported marginal differences between methods. This limits our ability to draw conclusions about the best methods to model ambient UFPs.

High-resolution spatial and spatiotemporal modelling of air pollution using fixed site and mobile monitoring in a Canadian city.

The development of high-resolution spatial and spatiotemporal models of air pollutants is essential for exposure science and epidemiological applications. While fixed-site sampling has conventionally provided input data for statistical predictive models, the evolving mobile monitoring method offers improved spatial resolution, ideal for measuring pollutants with high spatial variability such as ultrafine particles (UFP). The Quebec Air Pollution Exposure and Epidemiology (QAPEE) study measured and modelled the spatial and spatiotemporal distributions of understudied pollutants, such as UFPs, black carbon (BC), and brown carbon (BrC), along with fine particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO), and ozone (O) in Quebec City, Canada.

An Investigation into Which Methods Best Explain Children's Exposure to Traffic-Related Air Pollution.

There have been several methods employed to quantify individual-level exposure to ambient traffic-related air pollutants (TRAP). These include an individual's residential proximity to roads, measurement of individual pollutants as surrogates or markers, as well as dispersion and land use regression (LUR) models. Hopanes are organic compounds still commonly found on ambient particulate matter and are specific markers of combustion engine primary emissions, but they have not been previously used in personal exposure studies.

Household determinants of biocontaminant exposures in Canadian homes.

Exposure to biocontaminants, such as dust mites, animal dander, bacteria, and mold, is associated with a range of health effects. This study identified household characteristics associated with indoor biocontaminant loadings in four Canadian cities. Floor dust was collected in 290 Canadian homes in Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, and Windsor.