Absence of genotoxicity following pulmonary exposure to metal oxides of copper, tin, aluminum, zinc, and titanium in mice.

Inhalation of nanosized metal oxides may occur at the workplace. Thus, information on potential hazardous effects is needed for risk assessment. We report an investigation of the genotoxic potential of different metal oxide nanomaterials.

Mass and Mobility of Ions Produced by Radioactive Sources and Corona Discharges.

Positive and negative ions produced by radioactive sources and corona discharges in gases find a number of applications, including charging aerosol particles prior to their measurement by electrical and/or electrical mobility techniques. The degree to which these ions can charge aerosol particles depends on their mobility and mass; properties that are strongly affected by the composition of the carrier gas and the impurities that it contains. We show that when the purity of the carrier gas is increased, the mobility of both positive and negative ions increases by more than 50%, whereas the respective masses reduce by more than 50%.

Bioinspired nanostructured hydroxyapatite-polyelectrolyte multilayers for stone conservation.

Stone-built cultural heritage faces threats from natural forces and anthropogenic pollutants, including local climate, acid rain, and outdoor conditions like temperature fluctuations and wind exposure, all of which impact their structural integrity and lead to their degradation. The development of a water-based, environmentally-friendly protective coatings that meet a combination of requirements posed by the diversity of the substrates, different environmental conditions, and structures with complex geometries remains a formidable challenge, given the numerous obstacles faced by current conservation strategies. Here we report the structural, electrical, and mechanical characterization, along with performance testing, of a nanostructured hydrophilic and self-healing hybrid coating based on hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanocrystals and polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEM), formed in-situ on Greek marble through a simple spray layer-by-layer surface functionalization technique.

Indoor and outdoor air quality in street corner kiosks in a large metropolitan area.

Poor air quality in workplaces constitutes a great concern on human health as a good fraction of our time is spent at work. In Greece, very unique workplaces are the street corner kiosks, which are freestanding boxes placed on sidewalks next to city streets and vehicular traffic, where one can find many consumer goods. As such, its employees are exposed to both outdoor and indoor air pollutants.

Electronic properties and collision cross sections of AgOH (, = 1-4) aerosol ionic clusters.

Experimental evidence shows that hydroxylated metal ions are often produced during cluster synthesis by atmospheric pressure spark ablation. In this work, we predict the ground state equilibrium structures of AgOH clusters ( and = 1-4), which are readily produced when spark ablating Ag, using the coupled cluster with singles and doubles (CCSD) method. The stabilization energy of these clusters is calculated with respect to the dissociation channel having the lowest energy, by accounting perturbative triples corrections to the CCSD method.