Masks#

Fine and coarse influenza droplets that escape a surgical mask in laboratory setting.

Participants wore masks for 30 minutes while a machine gathered their exhalations. Participants were told to cough thirty times during the 30 minutes. One patient coughed naturally more than 30 times. From the authors: “The CDC recommends that healthcare settings provide influenza patients with facemasks as a means of reducing transmission to staff and other patients, and a recent report suggested that surgical masks can capture influenza virus in large droplet spray. However, there is minimal data on influenza virus aerosol shedding, the infectiousness of exhaled aerosols, and none on the impact of facemasks on viral aerosol shedding from patients with seasonal influenza.”

Initialization#

library(fosdata)
data <- fosdata::masks

Accessing fields#

data <- fosdata::masks
mask_coarse <- data$mask_coarse # Just a random field in the dataset

Interactive R Sample#

You can use the R editor below to interactively explore the dataset and generate plots. This contains a fully self-contained R environment with fosdata, ggplot2, and dplyr loaded.

webR + fosdata Test

Console

Plot

No plot generated yet.

LLM instructions#

If using an LLM, you can copy-paste the following instructions to accompany your prompt to inform the model of the fields and their types in the dataset.

LLM Instructions

The fosdata::masks dataset containing the following fields:

fields[7]{name,type,values}:
  obs,numeric,n/a
  mask_fine,numeric,n/a
  no_mask_fine,numeric,n/a
  nasal_swab,numeric,n/a
  mask_coarse,numeric,n/a
  no_mask_coarse,numeric,n/a
  pcr_type,factor,[A,B]

Fields#

Name	Description	Type	Min	Max	Values
`obs`	Observation number	numeric	1	37	-
`mask_fine`	viral copy number of fine particles (< 5 microns) for those wearing a mask, measured using quantitative RT-PCR	numeric	-	24239	-
`no_mask_fine`	viral copy number of fine particules for those not wearing a mask	numeric	-	126587	-
`nasal_swab`	viral load in the nasopharyngeal swab specimen	numeric	1725	33750000	-
`mask_coarse`	viral copy number of coarse particles (> 5 microns) for those wearing a mask	numeric	-	77	-
`no_mask_coarse`	viral copy number of coarse particules for those not wearing a mask	numeric	-	29118	-
`pcr_type`	A factor indicating which of two strains of influenza patient had	factor	-	-	`A`, `B`

Source#

Milton DK, Fabian MP, Cowling BJ, Grantham ML, McDevitt JJ (2013) Influenza Virus Aerosols in Human Exhaled Breath: Particle Size, Culturability, and Effect of Surgical Masks. PLoS Pathog 9(3): e1003205. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003205