Plasma activated water (PAW) has emerged as a viable technique for sterilization process since it contains some long-lived reactive oxygen and nitrogen species along with some very short-lived but ...strong oxidation agents such as hydroxyl radical (OH*) and superoxide anion (O2−). However, the concentrations of the reactive species such as nitrite, nitrate, and ozone are often insufficient in water for sterilization, or only a small amount of PAW can be generated. In this study, we developed a state-of-the-art approach by combining microbubbles (MBs) and plasma technology in a water recirculation system to enhance the dissolution of reactive species in a large amount of water. The investigations included plasma absorbing power measurement, visualization of plasma-activated microbubbles (PAMBs) generation, bubble size distribution, and the concentration measurements of various reactive species in water, after the air plasma jet and the PAMBs jet treatments, respectively. The results revealed that the plasma absorbing power efficiency could reach up to 71.7% for both plasma jet and PAMBs jet cases, respectively. For the PAMBs jet, the mean equivalent diameter of the bubble was estimated to be 290 μm. The results of the concentrations of chemical species such as nitrite and ozone in PAMBs water could be increased up to twice as high as compared to PAW using the proposed device. Moreover, the concentration of nitrate in PAMBs water was found to be nearly three times greater than that in PAW. Thus, we found that employing the PAMBs jet can significantly increase the concentrations of chemical species in water, which could considerably widen the application.
In this paper, atmospheric-pressure air and oxygen corona plasma jets under water surface have been used to generate plasma-activated water (PAW) to inactivate colletotrichum gloeosporioides ( C. ...gloeosporioides ) suspension. The atmospheric-pressure plasma jets in the water were characterized by measuring: 1) the electrical and optical properties for evaluating the plasma efficiency and 2) the physicochemical properties of PAW, including pH value, oxidation-reduction potential value, and the concentration of hydrogen peroxide, nitrite, and ozone. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of long-lived reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) and environmental factor (acidity) in PAW on fungicidal property. The results of antifungal activity show that the inactivation rate of C. gloeosporioides is higher using air-PAW than oxygen-PAW, and increases with increasing reaction time when preparation time of PAW is fixed as 30 min. This correlates well with measurements of the aqueous-phase long-lived RONS concentration such as nitrate and ozone, suggesting these species play crucial roles in the inactivation process.
This study systematically analyzed reactive species generated with self-built helium-based low-temperature atmospheric-pressure plasma jet (He-APPJ); we measured the hydroxyl radical ( OH) and ...hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) above surfaces of plasma-treating solutions and in plasma-treated medium (PTM) of different solutions, including deionized water, phosphate buffered saline, and Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium. The effects of adding O2 into He working gas on OH and H2O2 generation were discussed. The MCF7 cell responses to plasma treatment were also observed. The OH emission (309 nm) in He-APPJ and above surfaces of plasma-treating solutions were analyzed through optical emission spectroscopy, and concentrations of OH and H2O2 in different solutions were measured using terephthalic acid and Amplex Red, respectively. In our plasma system, it was observed that higher conductivity of solutions may cause stronger OH emission above solution. The ingredients of the solution may affect the concentrations of OH and H2O2. Addition of 0.1% O2 generates strongest OH emission above surfaces of plasma-treating solution with our He-APPJ, and thus, the highest H2O2 concentration in PTM. The MCF7 cell viability is influenced by the H2O2 concentration in PTM. The results of this study can facilitate further study of plasma effects on PTM and cell culture.
In this study, representation of surface topography in the vector vorticity equation model (VVM) is updated with a partial step approach using the immersed boundary method. Compared with the full ...step approach, the partial step approach provides additional topography forcing to represent micro mountains while preserving the same grid structure through interpolating from adjacent grid points. It maintains the characteristics of dynamics and physics of VVM and improves the representation of gentle slope topography without increasing vertical resolution. This approach produces reasonable results on the simulation of classical mountain waves with coarse vertical resolution. Additional experiments are performed to verify our approach including density driven flow using a cold bubble and 3‐D orographic precipitation over a ridge. The results show that vorticity fields in the partial step approach have a smoother response to the gentle slopes due to the improvement in the topography representation.
Key Points:
The immersed boundary method is formally implemented in VVM without modifying its grid structure.
The partial step approach better captures flow over gentle slopes or micro mountains.
It is straightforward to implement physical processes with the partial step approach.
In this study, we aim to evaluate the impact of fast land-atmosphere interactions on the afternoon thunderstorm in Taiwan through high-resolution meteorological simulations. For this purpose, the ...Noah land surface model (LSM) is implemented into the vector vorticity equation cloud-resolving model (VVM) with corresponding realistic land surface data of Taiwan into the coupling system, called TaiwanVVM. Two idealized experiments are conducted by giving the same surface forcing but one with direct land-atmosphere coupling from Noah LSM (called Coupled experiment) and the other with prescribed surface fluxes (called Prescribed experiment). Our results show that the fast land-atmosphere interaction over complex topography has a significant influence on rainfall intensity, especially in the heavy precipitating region where the interaction is strong. Without direct coupling between the land surface and the atmosphere in the Prescribed experiment, the diurnal intensity is suppressed by 50% over whole Taiwan and 70% for East Taiwan. Our findings demonstrate that the intensity of the afternoon thunderstorm is sensitive to fast land-atmosphere interactions by modifying local circulation in the mountainous region of Taiwan.
Upon injury, the direct damage and the subsequent secondary injury in the brain often result in chronic neurological disorders. Due to multifactorial nature of secondary injury and subsequent complex ...cellular responses, much of the underlying mechanisms are unclear. This study used an adult zebrafish cerebellum injury model to investigate the phenotypes and the secondary injury responses for recovery mechanisms of injured brain. Using the time course microarray analysis, a candidate protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was refined as cerebellar wound healing PPI network by dynamic modeling and big data mining. Pathway enrichment and ontological analysis were incorporated into the refined network to highlight the main molecular scheme of cerebellar wound healing. Several significant pathways, including chemokine, Phosphatidylinositide 3-kinases, and axon guidance signaling pathway and their cross-talks through PI3K, PAK2, and PLXNA3 were identified to coordinate for neurogenesis and angiogenesis, which are essential for the restoration of the injured brain. Our finding provides an insight into the molecular restoration mechanisms after traumatic brain injury, and open up new opportunity to devise the treatment for traumatic brain injury in human.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
An Unusual Cause of Cyanosis in a Child Chien, Mu-Ming; Wu, Jia-Feng; Lin, Ming-Tai
Gastroenterology (New York, N.Y. 1943),
August 2018, 2018-08-00, 20180801, Letnik:
155, Številka:
2
Journal Article
The incidence of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is increasing around the world, and patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have a higher risk of obtaining CDI. The data on the ...incidence rate of CDI in the Asian pediatric IBD population was lacking.
We retrospectively collected data from a tertiary medical center in Taipei, Taiwan. All patients aged 1–18 years old who visited the outpatient department or were admitted to our hospital between 2006 and 2019 were included. CDI was defined as positive stool C. difficile toxin or C. difficile culture results with appropriate antibiotic use within the range of 7 days prior or 14 days after the result.
We compared the average annual incidence of CDI before and after 2013. The average incidence of community-acquired CDI (CA-CDI) increased from 0.063 to 0.564 cases per 1,000 visits, with a rate ratio (RR) of 8.82 (95% CI 5.74-14.38). In patients with IBD, the rate increased from 26.738 to 278.873 cases per 1,000 visits (RR=10.12, 95% CI: 4.57-29.02). The average incidence rate increased from 0.685 to 1.874 cases per 1,000 admissions in pediatric general patients (RR = 2.72, 95% CI 1.82-4.20) and from 14.706 to 62.500 cases per 1,000 admissions in pediatric IBD patients (RR = 3.77, 95% CI 0.71-93.53).
Both CA-CDI and healthcare facility-onset CDI (HO-CDI) were increasing substantially in the pediatric population over the past decade in Taiwan. Compared to the general pediatric population, pediatric IBD patients had a much higher incidence of CDI.
Manganese, lead, arsenic and mercury are common neurotoxic metals in the environment. Nonetheless, the relationship between prenatal exposure to low doses of neurotoxic metals and neurodevelopment in ...children is not clear. The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between in utero exposure to environmental neurotoxic metals and neurodevelopment at 2 years of age.
The population of this study came from the Taiwan Birth Panel Study. We included 230 pairs of non-smoking mothers without any occupational exposure and their singleton full-term children. The information about exposure during pregnancy was obtained using a structured questionnaire, and the manganese, lead, arsenic and mercury levels in umbilical cord blood samples were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. We used the Comprehensive Developmental Inventory for Infants and Toddlers (CDIIT) to evaluate the developmental status of each child at 2 years of age, and we examined the association of in utero exposure to environmental metals and neurodevelopment using linear regression models.
The median concentrations of manganese, lead, arsenic and mercury in the cord blood samples in this study were 47.90µg/L (range, 17.88–106.85µg/L), 11.41µg/L (range 0.16–43.22µg/L), 4.05µg/L (range, 1.50–12.88µg/L) and 12.17µg/L (range, 1.53–64.87µg/L), respectively. After adjusting for maternal age, infant gender, environmental tobacco smoke during pregnancy and after delivery, Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment Inventory results, and arsenic and mercury levels in cord blood, we found that manganese and lead levels above the 75th percentile had a significant adverse association with the overall (β=−7.03, SE=2.65, P=0.0085), cognitive (β=−8.19, SE=3.17, P=0.0105), and language quotients (β=−6.81, SE=2.73, P=0.0133) of the CDIIT.
In utero exposure to environmental manganese and lead may have an adverse association with neurodevelopment at 2 years of age, and there is an interaction effect between the manganese and lead levels in the cord blood that could aggravate the effect.
•In utero exposure of Mn and Pb may have adverse neuro-effect at age 2.•The interaction of Mn and Pb could aggravate the children neurodevelopment.•The cognitive and language are the most sensitive part of the interaction.•The metabolisms of co-exposure are needed to be more concerned and elucidate.
PDF
