Archive for November, 2013

Motivation for OSBSS

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Recent advances in culture-independent molecular techniques and metagenomic computational tools for analyzing microbial diversity, coupled with the recognition that the majority of people in the developed world spend most of their lives indoors, has led to a rapid increase in the number of studies exploring microbial diversity within the built environment. Recent studies have characterized microbial diversity in offices and other commercial buildings, classrooms, healthcare facilities, homes, and transportation environments, which all represent indoor environments where people spend much of their time. In general, these studies have shown that many bacterial communities in occupied environments appear primarily dominated by human skin, gut, nasal, and/or oral source, with some variability attributed to building ventilation strategies and occupancy characteristics. Conversely, fungal communities appear primarily dominated by local outdoor environments.

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OSBSS is born!

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We are very excited to officially launch of the Open Source Building Science Sensors (OSBSS) project! The goal of OSBSS is to develop and document the design and fabrication of a network of inexpensive, standardized, and synchronized measurement devices for recording long-term indoor environmental and building operational parameters that are likely to influence microbial diversity and abundance in indoor environments. Documentation of the development, calibration, and performance of the sensor network will utilize open source hardware so anyone in the world can build their own sensors and sensor networks.