Indoor Air Cartoon Journal, September 2022, Volume 5, #134
[Cite as: Fadeyi MO (2022). Why is indoor exposure to air pollutants of outdoor origin important to the risk of stroke? Indoor Air Cartoon Journal, September 2022, Volume 5, #134.]
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The role of exposure to air pollutants in the indoor environment to the increased risk of stroke and its associated death during elevated outdoor air pollution was not given the attention it deserved. The oversight led to missed opportunities for developing the understanding needed to guide research direction and development of practices for healthy living. The need to reduce health problems believed to be caused by exposure to air pollutants of outdoor origin motivated a girl to do something. The journey the girl went through to empower people to develop healthy indoor air for healthy living is the subject of this short fiction story.
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Mr. and Mrs. Ababio arrived at a very popular beach resort in a remote village in a non-English foreign country more than 8,000 miles away from their country, an English-speaking African country. The couple planned to spend seven days at the resort and go on a 5-day road trip across the foreign country before returning to their home country. They rented a limousine car at the airport with a driver they hired from the car rental company. They paid for the driver to be at their disposal for comfortable and convenient movement during their holiday. The villagers noticed their presence in the village. They knew someone very rich was in their village.
Mr. Ababio was a prince. He was Prince Faraji Ababio and was very rich! Against the wish of his father, His Royal Highness, King Diallo Ababio, Prince Faraji Ababio decided to travel on the trip without an escort. King Diallo Ababio was the ruler of a major ethnic in their country. 45% of the citizens of that country were from the ethnic group King Diallo Ababio ruled over. Prince Faraji Ababio wanted to explore the world on his own with his wife and daughter for the first time since returning from his university education at Harvard University in the USA six years prior. The King reluctantly agreed to his wish. The King reasoned that Prince Ababio could care for himself as he studied abroad alone without an escort.
“Wow! The sea is beautifully blue! The resort is wonderfully lovely and quiet! Thank you, darling, for this holiday,” Mrs. Ababio said with excitement. “You are welcome, darling. You deserve the holiday,” Mr. Ababio said while hugging his wife. They had a wonderful experience at the resort, as expected. Mrs. Ababio begged her husband to bring her back to the resort another time.
On their fifth day during the holiday, Prince Ababio and his family returned to the resort hotel at 10 pm after a trip across the nearest city to the remote village when they heard the loud sound of busted tires. “Oh, my goodness! What was that?” Prince Ababio said loudly. “Are you ok, darling? Are you ok, my baby,” Prince Ababio checked on his wife and daughter. They were stuck on a road cutting through a forest at night.
The only source of light was the light from their car. “Don’t worry, Sir! Please let me check what happened,” the limousine driver said calmly and politely. Unknown to Prince Faraji Ababio, their four tires were busted by sharp objects. The driver came out of the car and walked backward as if he wanted a better look at the problem. Thirteen armed men came out of the forest suddenly and surrounded the car. The armed robbers put the sharp objects on the road when they saw the limousine car. They had been waiting for the limousine car. The armed robbers pointed their guns at Prince Ababio and his wife. Mrs. Ababio used her body to cover her daughter.
The armed robbers robbed Prince Ababio and his wife of their jewellery and other valuables and collected their debit, credit cards, pins, and other necessary bank information. The armed robbers verified the bank cards’ information. The armed robbers transferred the maximum allowable money that could be transferred out of the accounts of Prince Faraji Ababio and his wife by force.
Prince Ababio and his wife begged the armed robbers not to kill them. Prince Ababio and his wife did not know that the driver had planned with the armed robbers to rob them with the hope of getting part of the bounties collected from the robbery. Even after realising, they even pleaded to the driver to plead on their behalf out of desperation. The armed robbers shot Mr. Ababio and his wife in the head after robbing them.
To the driver’s surprise, the armed robbers turned guns on him also and shot him. The armed robbers wanted everything to themselves, including the limousine car, and to ensure there were no loose ends. One of the armed robbers turned a gun on the daughter, who was only three years old. If not for the head of the armed robbers who told him to stop, the girl would have been killed.
“The girl is not a threat to us. She is just a baby. We can sell her and make money from the sales,” the head of the armed robbers said. The armed robbers drove the limousine car and their cars with dead bodies to the seaside. They covered the girl’s mouth to prevent her from crying. Two of the armed robbers carried the dead bodies, with heavy metal tied around them, and dropped them in the middle of the sea.
No one knew what happened to Prince Faraji Ababio, his family, the driver, and the limousine car. That was how Prince Ababio, his wife, and his daughter disappeared without any traces. The armed robbers were never caught as the police were not interested in doing any investigations, even after the limousine car company, the driver’s family, and Prince Ababio’s family from his home country made police reports for mission persons. The case did not even make it to the news.
The armed robbers kept the little girl, who they named Amelia, as they did not know her name, in the basement of one of their members. Amelia was fed and kept in the basement for six years. When Amelia was nine years old, she was sold to a wealthy and politically powerful woman who usually kidnapped or bought children to work on her large farm. The woman built a dorm on the farm, guarded by heavily armed men to prevent any children from escaping from the farm. The children were treated like slaves. At 14, Amelia and three children around her age decided to escape from the farm.
They came out with a plan. The plan was to poison the drink of one of the guards to make him go to the toilet frequently to defecate. They planned to use the opportunity to cut through a barbwire fence and run into a thick forest surrounding the farm. The children knew the guard liked to drink coffee at around midnight. The children planned to distract the guard. One of the children would pretend to be vomiting outside the hostel near the guard station. They would call the guard for help. One of the children would poison the guard’s cup of coffee while assisting.
The plan was about to be successfully executed until one of the children running away with Amelia screamed in pain. The barbwire cut very dip into the girl’s leg. The noise got the attention of other guards and the guard in the toilet due to stomachache orchestrated by the four children. The other children, including Amelia, continued to run into the forest. The guards ran after the children. “Stop running, or you will be shot,” the guards instructed the children. Amelia and the two other children did not listen. They continued to run. One of the guards fired a shot, and one of the children was killed instantly.
The guard had been instructed to shoot on sight if any children attempted to escape from the farm. The child injured by the barbwire was taken back to the hostel and beaten until she died of her injury to instill fear in other children who may be planning to escape. Amelia and the other girl that successfully escaped got to the city and lived under a bridge. They kept each other company and comforted each other. The other girl died three years after they escaped from the farm due to unknown sickness. Amelia was 17 years old by this time.
Time passed, and Amelia grew under harsh conditions living under the bridge. She was bullied growing up because she did not look like anyone in the country. She was called Foreigner, and there was nothing she could do about it even though she did not like the name. Amelia had no idea of her country of origin. All she knew was that she looked like people of African origin.
She knew this because she had seen some tourists that looked like her. She did not understand why she looked different from people in the country. She felt alone in this world. The bully and the inferiority complex she lived with for many years due to being different from everyone around her made her lose self-confidence and fear failure. She feared failure because she did not want to be ridiculed by anyone.
She lost confidence in her ability even after demonstrating her ability as a fast learner. People around her realised Amelia was brilliant. She was bullied for that by people around her who felt intimidated by her intelligence. Amelia, who had lost the English-speaking ability she once had as a three-year-old girl, had to relearn how to speak the language at 17. Amelia was fascinated with the way tourists usually speak English. She took an interest in learning English after her friend died and felt alone. She bought English books designed for Preschool children with the little money she made from working on the streets.
By the time Amelia was 23 years old, she was very proficient in English. This was a tremendous achievement as she had never attended any school before. Amelia spent most of her money on buying novels. Her reading of novels contributed significantly to her English proficiency.
With her proficiency in English, she could converse with many tourists and got to know more about the world from them and the books she read. She taught herself many things, including maths and science subjects. Many of the books she bought were suggested to her by her tourist friends. She was later nicknamed Foreign Professor by people that lived with her under the bridge. Amelia was known by many because of her skin colour and her nickname.
Amelia had a US tourist friend, Mary, with whom she became very close. Their friendship grew over the years, and they communicated many times through email. Amelia would go to a computer café to check her emails. One day, Mary, whom she had known for three years, suggested doing the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) examination. Amelia was 26 years old at that time. Amelia was hesitant because she did not believe in her ability and feared failure.
Mary told her she could go to the US to study if she did well in the examination and get a college education that could change her life. Initially, Amelia did not take the suggestion seriously as she had no primary and secondary qualifications. Mary told her that it would not be necessary if she could pass the SAT examination to gain admission to universities in the US.
Amelia registered for SAT examination as Amelia Doe. Amelia Doe was the name given to her by the armed robbers. Amelia prepared well for the SAT examination with the books Mary sent her. Amelia would go to the house of Mary’s family friend living in Amelia’s country to collect the books Mary sent her. Amelia aced the SAT examination. She got a perfect score, even to the surprise of May, who believed in her brilliance. She also aced other examinations required to be eligible for admission to universities in the US.
Amelia applied to Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford, and several top universities in the US for university admission. Amelia got admission offers and a full scholarship from all the universities and decided to accept the offer from MIT to study environmental engineering. She planned to study medicine after her environmental engineering undergraduate study.
Amelia was motivated by her desire to find a solution to reduce the health impact of exposure to outdoor air pollution. Elevated outdoor air pollution was a major problem in her country, a country with many people suffering from pre-existing health conditions. The prominent pre-existing health conditions include high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, large artery disease, and small vessel disease. Unhealthy lifestyles such as smoking, excessive alcohol use, and lack of exercise were also predominant in the country.
Many people, including medical experts, believed that the incident rate of stroke and its associated death rate always increased whenever there were elevated outdoor air pollutants, especially ozone and fine particles (PM2.5), in the country. The belief was strengthened with hospital data records. Amelia believed that being a medical doctor with a background in environmental engineering would make her a better cardiologist in the country. She thought she would be a person of importance for the first time in her life and have a family of her own.
Amelia graduated with a perfect GPA and finished top of her class at MIT. She developed a very strong interest in environmental engineering, especially indoor air quality engineering, to the extent that she changed her career plan. Instead of proceeding to do Medicine at Harvard as she initially planned, she decided to proceed to do a Ph.D. in IAQ engineering at MIT. She was fascinated by AI-based video processing solution research and development work being done at a lab at MIT. The R&D work inspired Amelia to want to develop an AI-based video processing solution for visualising, measuring, and analysing visible and invisible air pollutants and stroke phenomena.
Her Ph.D. research was driven by two overarching questions: (i) is exposure to air pollutants in indoor environments important in increasing the risk of stroke and its associated death? (ii) Is the exposure to air pollutants in the indoor environment more important than or similar in effect to the exposure in the outdoor environment in increasing the risk of stroke? Amelia’s supervisor, Professor Shephard, warned her that the research she wanted to embark on was very tough.
Professor Shephard said, “developing and testing the effectiveness of an AI-based video processing solution vital to the research needed to answer the two questions will also be very challenging. “Oh! I think you are right; I should not pursue the research idea. I will think of another research idea,” Amelia said to Professor Shephard. Amelia said this as she did not have confidence in her ability even after demonstrating that she was brilliant several times.
Amelia’s life experience made her afraid of failure and not have confidence in her ability. Upon seeing the lack of confidence on Amelia’s face, Professor Shephard started to ask Amelia several questions, which Amelia answered excellently. Professor Shephard asked Amelia several questions to let her gain confidence in herself, as excellent research output requires a researcher to have confidence in their ability. Confidence breeds motivation.
Amelia did a rigorous literature review to have existing knowledge and understanding relating to her research questions and to get direction for developing a research methodology to answer the research questions effectively. She wanted to produce answers that would guide future research directions, improve industry practices, and promote healthy living.
Amelia’s literature review effort made her realise she needed to develop her research methodology to make her answer three questions relating to the indoor environment to answer her two overarching Ph.D. research questions. The indoor environment-related questions she found in one of the articles she reviewed were: (i) “What chemical and physical transformations occur indoors that alter the form and composition of outdoor air pollution?” (ii) “How do building and human factors influence the nature and extent of modulation of air pollution exposures?” (iii) “Which air pollutants have indoor sources leading to generally higher concentrations and exposures indoors than outdoors, and which of these may be particularly important for health?”
Amelia also learnt more about stroke and how exposure to air pollutants could damage or deposit on an artery wall and increase the risk of stroke. She focused her research on ischemic stroke. Amelia learnt from her literature review effort that ischemic stroke occurs when an artery is blocked, causing the blood supply to part of the brain to be interrupted or reduced, preventing brain tissue from getting oxygen and nutrients needed by the brain cells to live. She reviewed many articles stating how fine particles (PM2.5) deposited on an artery can cause physiological changes leading to a blocked artery.
Amelia gathered evidence supporting the understanding that combustion activities, outdoor air chemistry, windblown dust, pollen, and mould spores as major sources of particles, which are ultrafine, fine, and coarse sizes, and other pollutants in the outdoor environment. She also gathered evidence on how ventilation, filters or air cleaners, human presence and activities, indoor materials and equipment, and indoor air chemistry can be sources of particles and other air pollutants in the indoor environment.
Amelia expected the proposed AI-based video processing solution to process and magnify the video image to reveal the form, composition, and concentration of pollutants in the air that are visible and invisible to human eyes. She also expected the processed image to reveal the air direction, air pressure, air velocity, and chemical and physical transformation of pollutants in the air.
Thus, she reviewed the literature and industry practice to see how her expectation could be achieved. She also researched how the proposed AI-based video processing solution can be developed to effectively identify sources and sinks of air pollutants in the indoor environment. She explored how the video can be used to determine the concentration of pollutants of interest in the indoor air and their toxicity level.
To determine the effect of inhaled air pollutants on the risk of stroke and its associated death, the processed image involving humans should facilitate visualisation, measurement, and analyses of the tiniest movement and details on and inside the human body. Specifically, the expectation was for the developed AI-based video processing solution to gather information on the movement of pollutants in the human body and their impact on the performance of human organs. In this case, performance is related to stroke risk and associated death.
The processed human image should also reveal information on the pre-existing health condition of the human under analysis to determine the vulnerability level of the exposed person in developing stroke or dying from it. The AI-based video processing solution should also predict indoor air pollutants in the context of the three fundamental questions guiding the Ph.D. research study. The AI-based video processing solution should also predict the impact of inhaled air pollutants on the risk of stroke and its associated death.
Amelia designed experiments to collect real-life data and use the data for computer simulation. Amelia and her research team conducted the field study during the season when there was elevated outdoor air pollution. A total of forty healthy and unhealthy subjects were recruited for the study. Unhealthy subjects mean the subjects had pre-existing conditions typically associated with stroke.
Amelia and his research team also applied and got approval from the Institution Review Board (IRB) to conduct the study because it involved humans. The subjects were exposed to situations typically experienced in real-life. The subjects participated in the field study in a group of five. A group of five subjects was housed in a five-bedroom residential laboratory apartment with a closed compound every week. The field study was conducted for 8 weeks.
The apartment was fully furnished, and the subjects lived like they would in a typical residential apartment. Foodstuff was provided for them. They cooked their food. Each subject was given two lightweight 360o head cameras attached to a lightweight cap. One camera was positioned to cover the facial side of a subject, and the other was positioned to face the back of the subject. Each camera could also rotate 360o to capture the surrounding of each subject.
Each subject’s video history was captured using the camera. Subjects received their video loggers, with their research study ‘ID’ written on them, on Sunday night when they arrived at the residential lab. Subjects were advised to use their video loggers from early Monday morning immediately after waking up. The actual video history data logging automatically started logging from 8 am on Monday and ended at 8 pm on Saturday. Each group spent six days with their video logging for the duration they spent in the residential laboratory.
Subjects were free to hang out or play in the compound of the residential lab but were advised not to leave the compound to avoid capturing people who were not part of the experiment and did not sign up for their video to be taken. Subjects were required to put the camera on throughout except when they were in the bathroom and walking wardrobe. The cameras were still expected to be running while sleeping, except they were placed beside them.
Only videos from thirty-six subjects were eventually used as some of the subjects had to leave due to sickness or work or family emergencies. The videos were processed with the AI-based processing video solution Amelia and her team developed for visualisation, measurement, and analyses of visible and invisible pollutants in the air and their impact on the risk of stroke and its associated death.
The processed video also aided the determination of pollutant sources and sinks and their associated rates and concentrations of indoor air pollutants. The data collected from the field study were used as baseline information for the simulation of human exposure to indoor air pollutants and how the exposure increased the risk of stroke and its associated death. The following were the main findings from Amelia’s Ph.D. study.
• Majority of particles that found their way indoors were fine particles (PM2.5). Building envelopes effectively reduced outdoor to indoor transport of coarse particles and ultrafine particles more than in the case of fine particles.
• Fine particles were most efficient in penetrating deeply into the subjects’ lungs.
• Indoor sources contributed a large percentage of the pollutants the subjects were exposed to and inhaled indoors.
• Although the subjects were allowed to decide where they would like to spend their time, in the building or the building’s compound, they spent most of their time in the building. They spent ~30% and ~70% outdoors and indoors, respectively, every day.
• The longer duration the subjects spent indoors made the total concentration of ozone inhaled by the subjects when indoors and outdoors similar. Most of the ozone inhaled indoors originated from outdoors. Ozone of outdoor origin found indoors also initiated several volatile organic compounds generated from indoor sources to generate oxidation products, secondary organic aerosols (particles), and gas-phase organic compounds. Examples of gas-phase organic compounds are formaldehyde, 4-Acetyl-1-methylcyclohexene (4-AMC), and 3-Isopropenyl-6-oxoheptanal (IPOH). The oxidation products contributed a larger percentage of pollutants to indoor air pollution than the contribution from the ozone of outdoor origins.
• The ozone-initiated indoor air chemistry phenomenon in the indoor environment, which has a larger surface area to volume ratio than outdoors with a smaller area to volume ratio, and the duration the occupants spent indoors made the subjects inhale more oxidation products indoors.
• To add salt to injury, most of the harmful outdoor particles, especially fine particles, that found their way indoors and generated indoors became more harmful indoors due to semi-volatile organic compounds of indoor origins sorbed on them and increased their toxicity.
• The inhalation of higher concentrations of toxic air pollutants indoors increased the risk of stroke and its associated death.
• A computer simulation of subjects spending ~70% and ~30% outdoors and indoors, respectively, every day led to changes that significantly lower the risk of stroke and its associated death than changes that occurred in the simulation when subjects spent ~30% and ~70% in outdoors and indoors respectively every day.
• In both the field and simulation studies, when subjects spent ~30% and ~70% outdoors and indoors, the impact of inhalation of air pollutants on changes that increase the risk of stroke was lower when they were outdoors than when they were indoors.
• In the simulated studies, a decrease in ventilation rate increases the risk of stroke and its associated death. Simulation scenarios with healthy and unhealthy subjects were also examined. The lower the ventilation rate, the lower the gaps in the risk experienced by healthy and unhealthy subjects. A lower ventilation rate made the risk of stroke and its associated death more pronounced in healthy subjects than in unhealthy subjects.
The findings answered Amelia’s two overarching Ph.D. research questions and three fundamental questions relating to indoor environment phenomena. Amelia published her works in journals and conferences. Whenever she had the opportunity, especially at conferences, she would highlight to people the importance of the indoor environment in making air pollutants indoor occupants are exposed to more harmful than the harm exposure outdoors could cause.
Amelia made it her duty to convince people that indoor exposure to pollutants of outdoor origin has a causal effect on health risks. The contributions of Amelia’s Ph.D. research to scientific knowledge, industry practices, and healthy living received high praise from researchers, governments, industry professionals, and the public around the world.
The significance of Amelia’s Ph.D. work was highlighted, and she was interviewed on local news media and cable networks. In one of Amelia’s televised interviews at a cable network, her uncle, her father’s elder brother, saw her. The uncle was now the King of the kingdom of a major ethnic group in the country after his father, King Diallo Ababio, passed away. Her uncle, King Famari Ababio, could not believe his eyes.
King Famari Ababio called her wife the Queen. Darling, please come out quickly and see something. When the wife came out, he said, “when did our daughter go to MIT to do a Ph.D.?” The wife also could not believe her eyes. They knew a person on TV that looked exactly like their daughter could not be their daughter as their daughter, an architect, and her husband and children just had breakfast with them in the morning of the same day.
“Wait! Wait!! Wait!!! Could my brother and his family still be alive? Could that be my brother’s daughter? Could that be Makena?” King Famari Ababio said to the Queen. Amelia’s childbirth name was Makena Ababio. King Famari Ababio remembered that her daughter, born a week before Amelia, and his brother’s daughter looked so much alike that people mistook them for identical twins. King Famari Ababio’s daughter’s name was Princess Taraji.
Princess Taraji was very surprised, too, when she was shown the recorded video of Amelia’s interview from the cable network. In addition to the identical appearance, Amelia’s voice sounds like that of Princess Taraji. Furthermore, it was mentioned in the interview that Amelia was 34 years old. That was Princess Taraji’s age too.
The King, Princess Taraji, and some of the King’s chiefs booked the next available flights to the US. The King decided to bring Taraji along to convince Amelia, whom they hoped was Makena, that she could be the missing child in their family. The King also hoped to reconnect with his brother, Prince Faraji Ababio, and his wife.
The King and his entourage went to MIT to look for a girl they thought was Makena and had not seen for 31 years. They went to MIT because it was mentioned in the news that Amelia was doing her postdoctoral training at MIT after finishing her Ph.D. from the same university.
When the King and his entourage got to the environmental engineering department, heading towards the head of the department’s office, they saw a man at the carpark waving in their direction. The man said, “Amelia, here you are. I have been looking for you. The meeting will be starting soon.” The King and his entourage walked toward the man. The man was Professor Shephard.
“Hello, Sir! I am Princess Taraji Ababio. My name is not Amelia,” Princess Taraji introduced herself to Professor Shephard. “We are looking for a girl called Amelia who looks like me. I think you know the person we are looking for,” Princess Taraji said. Princess Taraji introduced her father, the King, and his chiefs to Professor Shephard. The King told Professor Shephard about their purpose and the reason behind the purpose. Professor Shephard was stunned!
Professor Shephard took them to where he was supposed to have a research meeting with Amelia and his research team. When they got to the meeting room, Professor opened the door and said, “Amelia, you have visitors.” Amelia wondered who could be looking for her, and so important for Professor Shephard to bring them to the research meeting room.
Princess Taraji was the first person to enter the room. She said, “hello, everyone.” Everyone, including Amelia, in the meeting room, was in shock. Amelia nearly fainted. It was like her spirit left her body and faced her. Their faces looked identical, and their voices sounded the same. King Famari Ababio shouted as he entered the room, “Makena, is that you?” Amelia responded to the King politely after she regained her composure from the initial shock. “I am Dr. Amelia Doe, Sir.”
Professor Shephard cancelled their planned research meeting and excused the research members so that Amelia could have a discussion with the King and his entourage. Professor Shephard stayed to support Amelia. Amelia told everyone her life story and said she did not have any family to the best of her knowledge. She said she had been alone all her life and knew nothing about her background.
King Famari, Princess Taraji, and the King’s entourage were very surprised and sad to hear about how she had suffered growing up. The King told Amelia about how his brother, wife, and daughter travelled 8000 miles away from home to the foreign country and disappeared without any trace. Amelia started think the small girl the King referred to could be her. Professor Shephard was stunned to learn how Amelia had suffered all her life and still managed to get to MIT. He did not know much about her background as Amelia disliked talking about it. She did not want anyone to pity or judge her.
The King and Amelia decided to do a DNA test to objectively confirm Amelia was part of the Ababio family. The DNA test confirmed that Amelia was part of the Ababio family. Amelia travelled to his native country to reunite with her family. There were tears of joy. Amelia and Princess Taraji became very close friends. Amelia found it interesting that she was a princess and was stunned by her richness. Her father’s inheritance which the family kept with the hope that he would return home one day, was given to her.
Amelia’s case became news. Considering Amelia’s contribution to scientific knowledge in the US and the world, Amelia’s case quickly became news reported by many US news channels, and the US government decided to help investigate the case. Amelia had recently become a US citizen at that time. She had a fast-track path to becoming a US citizen. Amelia renounced the citizenship of the country where she grew up. In addition to her US citizenship, she became a citizen of his father’s country.
Amelia told the investigating officers about how a wealthy and politically powerful woman treated her and many children like slaves and made them work on her farm under harsh human and weather conditions. The woman, now in her late 70s was arrested. The woman led the US investigation officers and their local counterparts in the foreign country where Amelia grew up to the armed robbers that sold Amelia to her. Some of the armed robbers were already dead. Those that were alive were arrested. The armed robbers narrated how they killed Amelia’s father and mother and their limousine driver. The armed robbers showed the investigation officers where they dumped the bodies.
The remains of Prince Faraji Ababio, his wife, and the limousine drivers were recovered after several years. Their identity was identified. The identification made it clear to King Ababio and his family that Prince Faraji Ababio and his wife were dead. Amelia also got to know that her parents were no more. However, his uncle, the King, showed her parents’ pictures.
With the aid of scientific development, the case was closed after several years with the armed robbers and the wealthy woman sent to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The support and pressure from the US government and the popularity of Amelia due to her scientific contributions to science, practice, and everyday life made local police in the foreign country open and solved the case after more than three decades.
Amelia gave a lot of money to charity because she knew what it meant to be a nobody and very poor. She had several charity foundations, some of which were named after her parents, in her native country, the foreign country where she grew up, and in the US. Princess Dr. Amelia Doe Ababio was now highly educated, royal, and rich! She chose to retain her name, Amelia Doe.
Princess Dr. Amelia Doe Ababio was now having meetings with the presidents, prime ministers, ministers, governors, and wealthy and influential people wherever she went, including the foreign country where she grew up. She went to the foreign country several times for her charity activities and to apply her scientific knowledge and connections to improve the country’s indoor air quality and health. Some of her “friends” living under the bridge, who were still living there whenever she went to the foreign country, were surprised by her transformation.
After finishing her postdoctoral research at MIT, Amelia worked for a US government agency and rose to become an Administrator – a title given to the head of a large government agency in the USA. The AI-based video processing solution developed over the years evolved so that anyone could use their phones to visualise, measure, and analyse visible and invisible air pollutants and their impacts on human health.
The AI-based video processing solution aided the development of understanding needed by policymakers, industry professions, researchers, educators, medical professionals, and everyday people to guide research direction and development of practices for healthy living. The understanding provided by the solution aided the decision-making for eliminating or reducing sources of air pollutants and their contributing factors.
The understanding also aided decisions that facilitated the introduction of effective sinks (removing agents) of air pollutants that were less likely to become sources of air pollutants. Princess Dr. Amelia Doe Ababio won many research awards, many of which she received in the company of her husband and children. THE END!
Indoor Air Cartoon Journal 