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The early morphologic involvement of the GCL+IPL and INL+OPL layers in ARM eyes, as revealed by the ASA, could be related to early anatomic changes described in the inner retina of ARM eyes. This finding may represent a morphologic correlation to the deficits in postreceptoral retinal function in ARM eyes.

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Alveolar and tracheobronchial-deposited submicrometer particle number and surface area data received by different age groups in Australia are shown. Activity patterns were combined with microenvironmental data through a Monte Carlo method. Particle number distributions for the most significant microenvironments were obtained from our measurement survey data and people activity pattern data from the Australian Human Activity Pattern Survey were used. Daily alveolar particle number (surface area) dose received by all age groups was equal to 3.0 × 10(10) particles (4.5 × 10(2) mm(2)), varying slightly between males and females. In contrast to gender, the lifestyle was found to significantly affect the daily dose, with highest depositions characterizing adults. The main contribution was due to indoor microenvironments. Finally a comparison between Italian and Australian people in terms of received particle dose was reported; it shows that different cooking styles can affect dose levels: higher doses were received by Italians, mainly due to their particular cooking activity.

The upper and lower bounds of the effective thermal conductivity of packed beds of rough spheres are evaluated using the theoretical approach of the elementary cell for two-phase systems. The solid mechanics and thermal problems are solved and the effects of roughness and packed bed structures are also examined. The numerical solution of the thermal conduction problem through the periodic regular arrangement of steel spheroids in air is determined using the Finite Element Method. The numerical results are compared with those obtained from an experimental apparatus designed and built for this purpose.

Airborne particles, including both ultrafine and supermicrometric particles, contain various carcinogens. Exposure and risk-assessment studies regularly use particle mass concentration as dosimetry parameter, therefore neglecting the potential impact of ultrafine particles due to their negligible mass compared to supermicrometric particles. The main purpose of this study was the characterization of lung cancer risk due to exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and some heavy metals associated with particle inhalation by Italian non-smoking people. A risk-assessment scheme, modified from an existing risk model, was applied to estimate the cancer risk contribution from both ultrafine and supermicrometric particles. Exposure assessment was carried out on the basis of particle number distributions measured in 25 smoke-free microenvironments in Italy. The predicted lung cancer risk was then compared to the cancer incidence rate in Italy to assess the number of lung cancer cases attributed to airborne particle inhalation, which represents one of the main causes of lung cancer, apart from smoking. Ultrafine particles are associated with a much higher risk than supermicrometric particles, and the modified risk-assessment scheme provided a more accurate estimate than the conventional scheme. Great attention has to be paid to indoor microenvironments and, in particular, to cooking and eating times, which represent the major contributors to lung cancer incidence in the Italian population. The modified risk assessment scheme can serve as a tool for assessing environmental quality, as well as setting up exposure standards for particulate matter.

The effective thermal conductivity, ke, rigorously defined on the basis of the local volume averaging method, is an important parameter in porous media. The experimental and numerical results available in literature demonstrate that the kevalue is influenced by several parameters such as thermal and mechanical properties of the multiphase porous medium, phase volumetric fractions, geometrical shape and spatial distribution of the solid matrix and, in particular, contact area between the solid particles. In the present paper, a numerical method to evaluate the effective thermal conductivity from the packing structure of a packed bed of mono-sized spheres is validated through the comparison with experimental data, obtained by the authors from an apparatus designed and build up for this purpose. The effects of the spheroid surface roughness is examined as the applied contact load and the solid matrix material vary. In particular packed beds of steel and aluminum spheroids saturated by a static gas (air) have been studied. Unfortunately, the lack of published results including an accurate measurement of the particle roughness does not allow the authors to compare their numerical results with other researchers’ experimental data.

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